The elite did not migrate south

Chapter 591 What to do
Cao Mao's letter made Lu Kang extremely confused.

Different from what Lu Kang thought.

This letter from Cao Mao was not a letter of surrender.

It wasn't a reprimand, nor was it a traditional Cao family letter with many corrections.

This is actually a letter discussing classics with Lu Kang.

It is like the letters that famous scholars send to each other, where everyone talks about their views on the classics, puts forward their own ideas, and asks the other party to correct them.

The classic that Cao Mao wanted to discuss with Lu Kang was Wangxue, the most popular school of thought in the Wei State.

Lu Kang originally thought that the other party was trying to persuade him to surrender through knowledge, but after reading, he found that Cao Mao did not mention anything about the world or the current situation at all, and was just talking seriously about knowledge.

Moreover, Lu Kang could be sure that this was not written by someone else.

In fact, when it comes to classics, different people have very obvious styles, and a discerning person can see it at a glance. Lu Kang was not familiar with Cao Mao, but from his understanding of the classics, one can understand the identity of the person who studied the classics.

People of different identities often have very different opinions when treating the same sutra.

For example, Wang Su and Zheng Xuan had considerable differences when annotating the same classics, simply because of their different identities.

As an emperor, the scope of his work was extremely grand.

Lu Kang couldn't help but marvel at it.

Cao Mao really has a talent for classics, not to mention that he now has the bonus of "foresight".

He can understand any classic thoroughly and even add his own speculations.

Lu Kang was fascinated by what he saw.

The first lesson for the celebrities of this era is the classics. Those who are proficient in the classics are not necessarily celebrities, but celebrities must be familiar with the classics.

Even a pragmatist like Zhuge Liang had to first master the classics, and then learn other things, gradually expanding his academic pool.

Cao Mao interpreted Wang Su's classics in his own way, and interpreted them from the emperor's perspective, which really gave him a different feeling. Lu Kang read for several days without going out.

It can be said that Lu Kang was deeply touched.

On this day, Lu Kang finally put down the letters in his hand. His study was filled with all kinds of classics.

Looking at the book full of notes, Lu Kang couldn't help but smile bitterly.

It seems a bit too obsessed with being broken.

When he walked out of the study, several deputy generals were standing outside the door, looking very anxious.

"General! The messenger sent by His Majesty has been waiting for you all day!"

Seeing Lu Kang, his subordinates finally breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly spoke.

Lu Kang was not in a hurry. He changed his clothes and took a bath before meeting the emperor's envoy in the lobby.

Although the envoy waited for Lu Kang for a whole day, he did not show any displeasure.

Today, Lu Kang's status has risen rapidly, even surpassing Shi Ji. After all, he is still very young, and no one knows what status he will reach in the future. Anyway, judging from the current development, he will definitely become a great governor of the Wu State.

The person sent by the emperor was a eunuch, but Lu Kang did not show any disdain for eunuchs.

"General, His Majesty has issued an edict."

The eunuch did not read the imperial edict to Lu Kang, but handed it directly to him.

Lu Kang picked up the imperial edict, looked through it for a moment, and finally a smile appeared on his face.

The emperor agreed to his request.

After arriving at the front line, Lu Kang inspected the situation in various places and then wrote three things to the emperor.

The first thing was to confiscate the property of those who had fled, take it back from the temple, and not allow his clansmen to take it over.

Lu Kang started by attacking himself.

Take Lu Kai for example. Lu Kai is gone, but his property is still there. This is the property of the entire clan and should be redistributed to the rest of the clan. This is the custom in the Wu State.

However, Lu Kang wrote a letter requesting to break this convention.

Lu Kang believed that the big families' behavior of betting on both sides would weaken the Wu State's will to resist. He even wrote a letter requesting that the clan members be punished as well, saying that he was willing to be punished first.

Lu Kang's memorial shocked all the ministers. After all, as one of the beneficiaries, anyone who could take action against them first must be a ruthless person.

Sun Xiu attached great importance to Lu Kang's petition and promised him to confiscate the property of those people. As for Lu Kang's request to punish others together, starting with himself, Sun Xiu said that past events could be left unattended, but if anyone in the clan fled in the future, the rest of the clan would be punished for the crime of rebellion!

With Lu Kang's support, Sun Xiu became much tougher in his attitude towards these people.

However, the ministers did not say much about this.
The second thing is to reduce taxes and levies.

This is easy to say, but very difficult to do.

In order to meet the needs of war, the Three Kingdoms needed to maintain a large army all year round. The Later Han Dynasty did not maintain such a large standing army. That is, it would temporarily recruit good families when fighting. In order to maintain the army and fight, taxes and labor service were required.

To reduce taxes and levies on the government is to weaken the combat effectiveness of the entire country.

Lu Kang's proposal made the emperor extremely conflicted.

However, Lu Kang believed that the number of troops could be reduced and elite troops could be retained. What they needed now was to hold on rather than attack. By reducing the number of troops and reducing taxes and levies in the country, this severe situation could be alleviated.

Many generals believed that because of the defeat in the Jingnan battlefield, a large amount of materials and manpower should be spent to build walls and checkpoints here to strengthen the defense. However, Lu Kang angrily rebuked these arguments.

Lu Kang only used one allusion: The right time is not as important as the right location, and the right location is not as important as the right people.

In the current situation, if we still want to continue squeezing money out of the people who have nothing left, and then let them build checkpoints and city walls, then no matter how tall and strong the walls are, they will not be able to protect the State of Wu, and the State of Wu will surely perish.

He also compared the Qin State to an example, believing that only by gaining the support of the people could a country last long.

Although the generals were somewhat hesitant, the officials in the court strongly supported Lu Kang's decision. Perhaps to them, the affairs of the world were not important, but advising the emperor to reduce taxes and levies could gain them a good reputation.

This is more important than anything else.

Sun Xiu hesitated for a long time, but this time he agreed to Lu Kang's proposal to reduce taxes and levies.

The last thing is about the soldiers who had made meritorious contributions before.

In fact, as the general who had made the most contributions before, Lu Kang was the one who should least bring up this matter.

Because this made him feel like he was in a hurry to get the reward, which was not good for his own reputation, but Lu Kang still wrote the letter.

He asked the emperor to reward the soldiers who had made contributions during the war and to properly count their military achievements without missing out on anyone.

Sun Xiu naturally agreed.

The envoy not only brought back Sun Xiu's imperial edict, but also brought many rewards.

Lu Kang had already been rewarded with an official title, and after he submitted the letter, Sun Xiu gave him a large amount of rewards, including more than ten horse-drawn carriages for transporting these things.

Lu Kang's face was calm, showing no emotion at all.

He looked at the eunuch in front of him and said seriously, "Don't leave yet. I have a letter. Please help me bring it back to His Majesty!"

"only!!"

Lu Kang immediately asked someone to bring paper and pen and began to write.

Lu Kang first thanked the emperor for his reward and for listening to his advice.

Then he changed the topic and began to talk about the important events in the temple.

What Lu Kang is most worried about now is Zhang Bu and Puyang Xing.

No one knew what was so good about them, but Sun Xiu was reluctant to give up on them and repeatedly wanted to promote them.

Lu Kang said very sincerely in the letter: The State of Wu can no longer withstand internal strife, and Your Majesty is requested not to promote these two people anymore, so as not to cause other conflicts.

After writing this, Lu Kang handed the letter to the eunuch and let him leave.

After the eunuch left, the deputy general stepped forward and asked cautiously, "General, have you informed His Majesty about General Lu's letter?"

"Your original memorial offended many people, and I'm worried..."

Lu Kang waved his hand and said, "What's there to say? If Your Majesty doesn't believe me, just arrest me and take me back to Jianye!"

The deputy general was speechless. Lu Kang pondered for a moment before saying, "Go and take out the rewards His Majesty gave me and divide them among the soldiers. Divide them according to their original merits, and do not show partiality."

The deputy general was horrified, "General, this is a reward from His Majesty."

"No problem, this is all for the sake of preserving the Wu Kingdom. Your Majesty will not blame me."

Lu Kang waved his hand, turned around and returned to the inner room again.

At this moment, Sun Xiu in Jianye was also listening to his ministers impeaching Lu Kang.

Recently, more and more people have begun to impeach Lu Kang.

Some said that he had private contact with the State of Wei, while others said that he was seeking rewards for himself.

Say anything.

Without exception, these people were scolded by Sun Xiu.

Sun Xiu did not like these children of the big families, but he knew clearly who could save the State of Wu when the country was facing survival.

If I don’t reuse Lu Kang, do I want to reuse idiots like you?

If I ask you to go to Jingnan, you probably won’t even dare to go to Lexiang!
Sun Xiu once again cursed the minister in front of him.

"General Lu faced an army several times larger than his own in Jingnan, yet he dared to attack Jiangling alone and never betrayed his country. Now that he has defeated the enemy and received a reward, is he going to betray his country?"

"How dare you, these people, drive a wedge between me and the commander-in-chief of the army? I think you are conspiring with the State of Wei! Come on, drive them out!"

Another minister was driven out in humiliation under the beatings.

Sun Xiu's face was very determined. Ever since Lu Kang had made such a frank and self-defeating remonstration, Sun Xiu had temporarily given up the idea of maintaining a balance and decided to get through the difficulties first.

Just as he was about to review the memorials from various places again, he suddenly started coughing violently.

Even breathing became so difficult that he covered his throat and let out bursts of labored gasps, which were then interrupted by violent coughing.

Sun Xiu's face was full of pain, and his condition only improved a lot after he drank the medicine prepared by the imperial physician.

Sun Xiu's eyes were filled with deep despair.

How can this be good?

(End of this chapter)