Second-hand time travel: Liu Bei, the big-eared bandit

Chapter 453 A Willful Person

"To pacify the world?"

Liu Bei chuckled softly, unsurprised by the answer: "How does Mengde intend to pacify this land?"

Every power needs a guiding principle, and the guiding principle of every power is to pacify the world.

Even the Yellow Turbans did not aim to wreak havoc on the world. The Taiping Dao's mission was to establish a new order, break the old one, and bring peace to the world.

In any case, as the leader of a power, one cannot have any other ambitions.

That's just how people are; they can hardly even decide their own aspirations.

However, each faction has different ideologies, and their definitions and interpretations of 'pacifying the world' are completely different.

Cao Cao's head began to throb again.

"I don't know... Please teach me, Prime Minister."

Cao Cao lowered his head, not wanting Liu Bei to see his eyes.

He wasn't unaware; he simply didn't know how to say it.

"I've already taught him... You should have met Li Zheng. Has Li Zheng ever told you about his ambitions?"

Liu Bei said softly, "Li Zheng became a military doctor and followed me in the campaign against the Hu in Liaodong. He is now a medical officer and has treated hundreds of wounded patients; his contributions are considerable..."

“His father was your close friend, and now Li Qian is a great general and the most prominent figure in Jiyin.”

"You may not know that Li Zheng once studied under the Taiping Dao. But Li Zheng received the true teachings. He wanted to become a superior doctor, to protect the peace of the Han Dynasty, and to expand the territory of the Han Dynasty... For the sake of his ambition, he was willing to be separated from his father."

"Perhaps some ignorant fools will say that Li Zheng was unfilial... but you and I both know that he was loyal, filial, and righteous, a true hero of the Han Dynasty!"

"Only with such a mindset can one be called a true ambition."

“Brother Mengde, I know you are facing many difficulties now. But when you were working to provide food for the starving people of Dunqiu, and when you were eliminating illicit worship in Jinan, did you ever have any personal gain in mind?”

"But now...where is your true self?"

Cao Cao listened in silence, his eyes welling up with tears, but he dared not look up.

Perhaps stung by Liu Bei's words, Cao Cao retorted, "When you were in Dunqiu, did you ever imagine that we would have such a powerful situation today?"

"I thought about it."

Liu Bei nodded directly: "At that time, I was thinking... How could I become a thief? How could I be a thief? Mengde, I became a thief so that I would not become a thief... I became an official so that I would not become an official."

"The world I want is a world where no one is a thief or an official, and where ordinary people can live a life worthy of respect."

Cao Cao murmured, "This peace is also the root of chaos in the world..."

In fact, in Cao Cao's eyes, Liu Bei's path was the Path of Peace.

It is about changing the world and rebuilding a new order.

Just like Qingzhou today, there are no longer powerful and wealthy families. Liu Bei runs his own schools to train officials and uses the army he trained to manage the countryside together with officials who are close to the people.

There were no powerful clans acting as intermediaries in the local areas; from the prefectures and counties to the villages, everything was managed by the imperial court.

This is how Liu Bei pacified the world; he followed the path of powerful ministers but used the methods of the Way of Peace.

This is precisely why so many powerful and influential families opposed Liu Bei.

But Cao Cao knew it would be difficult.

This means abandoning the resources brought by the original aristocratic families, abandoning the rules of the old era, abandoning the precedents of a thousand years, and abandoning the 'general trend' in the eyes of the people.

This was the result Zuo Yuan achieved through repeated killings and endless risks in the face of repeated counterattacks from powerful clans.

Perhaps only Zuo Yuan could do this.

Few people would be willing to risk their infamy by killing members of the aristocratic class. Most people have a fixed mindset that the aristocracy is needed to govern a region and that massacres would alienate the people.

Although Dong Zhuo's subordinates plundered everywhere, even the most ruthless soldiers did not dare to slaughter the gentry like Zuo Yuan did.

Because this would bring eternal infamy.

Sima Fang once said to Cao Cao, "Liu Bei is tyrannical and has lost the hearts of the people. Mengde should take his place."

Xun Yu once said: "Liu Bei holds power but acts like a thief. This is a violation of the fundamental principles of morality and social order. He will surely lose his momentum. His skills are worth learning, but his mindset is not."

Actually, they are all right.

Because 'people's hearts' does not refer to the hearts of every individual, but rather to the identity of the gentry.

From the Spring and Autumn Period to the present day, for thousands of years, the identity of the aristocratic class has represented universal identity.

Public opinion, reputation, knowledge, money and food, opportunities for advancement, production resources... from the imperial court to the local level, from material to spiritual matters, everything was controlled by the aristocratic class. History books and classics were also interpreted by the aristocratic class.

Long-term monopoly has created a habitual way of thinking. The normal path to pacifying the country has always been to first gain the approval of the gentry, and then use the gentry to govern the common people, so that the country can return to stability.

The gentry could not accept the way Qingzhou was pacified.

The gentry desired to pacify the world in the same way as before, with the imperial court and the local areas remaining separate.

What the aristocratic families wanted was a pacification that they recognized.

This is the disease of the world.

This is a millennium-old incurable disease because it is a paradox.

To win the hearts of the people, one must rely on the gentry; to rely on the gentry, one must allow them to gain benefits; when the gentry become too powerful in the localities, the imperial power will be unable to effectively control the counties; if the imperial power cannot effectively control the counties, it will be controlled by the gentry; if the imperial power is controlled, it will become an enemy of the gentry; if it becomes an enemy of the gentry, it will lose the hearts of the people again.

This great man has been going through this cycle of reincarnation for a long time.

However, the rule of the aristocratic class, and the hearts of the people they represented, were unreliable...

The people suffered greatly from disasters, and their hearts yearned for change. For a hundred years, rebellions broke out in various prefectures and counties. The Yellow Turban Rebellion of the Taiping Dao tore away the last fig leaf of the Han Dynasty—the rule of the gentry over the local areas was not actually stable; it had just been concealed.

Can the consensus of the majority of the gentry truly represent the will of the people?
Cao Cao understood this perfectly well. He was also a participant in the struggle between Liu Hong and the aristocratic clans, and he personally witnessed the Yellow Turban Rebellion being born from the aristocratic clans and being destroyed by them.

He knew that this was just one group of struggling people tearing each other apart for their own interests.

The deep-seated problems and ills of the world remain unchanged.

Cao Cao knew that Liu Bei's approach to treating the Han Dynasty was reasonable.

Unlike the Taiping Dao, Liu Bei did not immediately attempt to treat patients by cutting out their hearts and bleeding them out, nor did he intend to kill the patients first and then try to cure their chronic illnesses...

The Yellow Turbans believed that the imperial court was the source of the disease and tried to remove it. This was essentially a heart-cutting therapy. The Way of Peace did not see the emperor as the root of the disease. In fact, they had diagnosed the disease correctly, but their treatment method was to try to kill both the patient and the disease. Of course, the patient, their family, and even the onlookers could not agree to this.

Therefore, the Yellow Turban Rebellion was quickly suppressed by the imperial court and local authorities. Cao Cao and Liu Bei, who sympathized with the Way of Peace, did not directly support the Yellow Turbans.

You can't treat an illness by just addressing the symptoms, not the root cause.

If you want to remove rotten flesh and allow new flesh to grow from the wound, you must at least ensure that the patient's heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys are healthy and that the patient's vitality is maintained so that new flesh can grow.

However, one should not cut too drastically at once, lest the strong man bleed to death.

If treating an illness turns a person into a vegetable, they may be alive, but can that be called a cure?

If the Great Han dies or becomes a vegetable, it will be impossible to restore the world dominance represented by the Great Han and the Great Han's right to define the world again in just one or two generations.

Liu Bei's treatment plan was to preserve the vitality of the Han Dynasty, and then cut away the rotten flesh and lesions when fresh blood was replenished, using the new blood he cultivated to maintain the blood supply of the Han Dynasty.

As long as a certain amount of new blood is produced, the corresponding lesion is removed so that the new blood is just enough to replace it.

Until all the Han Chinese are replaced with fresh blood.

This is what Qingzhou is doing, Xuzhou is in the process of doing it, but Youjizhou hasn't had time yet, as they don't have enough time to build up their own resources.

Liu Bei never accepted investment from powerful clans or aristocratic families; his followers were mostly merchants, pirates, commoners, refugees, and criminals...

Some sons of powerful families also served under Liu Bei, but all of them had to be screened in Liu Bei's troops or the Han Military Academy, and all officials came from the examination system.

Whether the examination method is advanced or not is not important. What is important is that it is a way of selecting officials that does not rely on the existing aristocratic families, and it is a process of creating new blood.

Traditional aristocratic families could also participate in the imperial examinations; this was like hemodialysis, a purification process.

All commoners, including tenant farmers, could study and join the army under Liu Bei's rule. This created a new generation of scholars, and with each new generation growing up, the Han Dynasty could regain its youth and strength. This was Liu Bei's way of curing the Han Dynasty's chronic illness.

In all aspects of military, political, and academic life, everyone takes Liu Bei himself as their teacher, replaces the old order with fresh blood and flesh cultivated by Liu Bei himself, and always ensures that there is room for promotion and demotion, and always opens up upward channels for everyone.

Of course, this also has a life cycle; aging and decay are normal, but a man who has regained his youth can at least live many more years.

Then the Han Dynasty might be able to completely set the standards for the entire world during this period of time.

This is not the tutor of the emperor, but the teacher of heaven. Liu Bei is cultivating his own heaven, and this is the way of the heavenly teacher.

Liu Bei's ambitions and path were very clear. He did not actually rely on any social class. The popular support and influence he gained were not based on traditional recognition.

It is not a matter of like-minded people joining hands and walking side by side.

Cao Cao was very envious.

So he kept imitating.

However, things were different for Cao Cao.

His troops, population, finances, weaponry, officials at all levels, and his reputation and connections all came from wealthy and powerful families.

He couldn't build a new world like Liu Bei.

For Cao Cao, the will of the gentry was the ultimate advantage.

For Cao Cao, the rotten flesh that was cut off included not only the Xun, Chen, Zhong, and Xin clans of Yingchuan, and the Sima clan of Henan... but also the Cao, Ding, and Xiahou clans of Pei.

Liu Bei could even eliminate the Kong family; no family is safe.

Every person from Guizhou has the potential to become a scholar, making the gentry class worthless.

There are academies everywhere, and everyone can study. The standard for obtaining an official position is no longer based on classical studies and reputation. This means that the accumulation of hundreds of years by a family may not be as effective as a poor boy's hard work in a few decades.

What was once a familiar world will become a strange and unpredictable one. Powerful families have accumulated many grudges and will eventually be settled by those poor young men who rise to power.

This was Liu Bei's greatest sin in the eyes of the gentry, and the root of the powerful families' hostility towards him—in a sense, it was indeed the source of chaos in the world.

A world free from deep-seated problems and abuses is what wealthy young men perceive as 'chaos'.

Cao Cao knew.

he knows.

But he couldn't help it.

This contradiction and despair of knowing yet being powerless to change it is an unbearable pain.

Cao Cao could only engrave the tombstone of Cao Hou, the General Who Conquered the West of Han, in his heart and bury it in his chest.

Cao Cao remained silent for a long time, until his eyes were dry, before looking up at the sky: "Prime Minister, you have the people in your heart, and I deeply respect you. But I don't know how you intend to deal with me now?"

"Disposal?"

Liu Bei gave Cao Cao a strange look: "What crime have you committed?"

Cao Cao was taken aback, but then realized that Liu Bei was letting him make the choice himself...

Should we follow Liu Bei and use his methods to pacify the world, or should we maintain our own power?

There are also matters concerning the emperor...

"Cao Cao, following the imperial edict, together with the Prime Minister, escorted His Majesty to Chang'an, one openly and one secretly, one in the south and one in the north... However, Cao Cao was not well informed and was misled by treacherous people, which led to a misunderstanding with Li Zhiran. He was defeated on the way, which damaged the prestige of the Han Dynasty and was a crime of defeat."

Cao Cao said slowly, "Fortunately, Your Majesty has been with the Prime Minister's army, and the villains' plot has not succeeded..."

Cao Cao was extremely intelligent; Liu Bei's offer of a way out was very subtle, but he realized it.

This statement is equivalent to the two people saying that the "Son of Heaven" was the real Son of Heaven, and that no one overstepped his authority or held him hostage.

The two were simply escorting the emperor, one openly and the other covertly, for his safety...

Only those who obstruct Liu Bei are considered traitors, and Cao Cao truly did not obstruct Liu Bei.

Cao Cao was defeated by Li Jue due to misjudging the enemy's situation. This can be considered a crime of defeat and misleading the army. However, since he neither lost territory or abandoned cities, nor suffered the loss of sovereignty or national humiliation, he will not be punished.

In other words... no one will mention that the emperor was kidnapped twice.

This was done for the sake of the Han Dynasty's prestige; otherwise, both of them would be guilty.

After all, Liu Xie was held hostage by Xin Ping on both Liu Bei's and Cao Cao's sides, which was indeed a serious crime of deceiving the emperor and disgracing the country.

Where is Jiang Ye, a disciple of my master?

Liu Bei asked.

"Perhaps in Li Zhiran's or Duan Zhongming's army, the traitor Xin Ping should also be there."

Cao Cao already knew that Li Jue and Duan Wei had fought at Ziwu Ridge. He was unsure of Liu Xie's whereabouts, but he could tell that he was definitely with one of their armies.

After all, there is only one road through Ziwu Ridge, and beyond Ziwu Ridge, to the north lies Niyang, controlled by Li Jue, and to the south lies Fuping, where Duan Wei stationed his troops.

Liu Bei nodded, then turned the topic back to Cao Cao: "Mengde, I do not recognize your title of General Who Guards the East without the imperial seal. But if you still have the ambition to conquer the west, then first help me to pacify the world... Now the bandits in Liangzhou need to be quelled. Once they are defeated, His Majesty can get married."

"Cao Cao is willing to follow the Prime Minister's wishes. The Prime Minister is magnanimous. Cao Cao bows in gratitude."

Cao Cao knew this was the best choice, and without hesitation, he immediately bowed and agreed, then asked, "Why did the Prime Minister postpone His Majesty's wedding until after the pacification of Liangzhou?"

"His Majesty is about to come of age, and His Majesty has his own wishes. We must wait until His Majesty assumes full power and makes his own decision."

Liu Bei gave Cao Cao a direct answer: "I am a regent, not a traitor. The government is governed by the prime minister, and sacrifices are performed by the emperor. Isn't this exactly what all the scholars in the world expect?"

Cao Cao was shocked: "The Prime Minister wants His Majesty to rule in his own right?"

"Of course, isn't that how it should be?"

Liu Bei then mocked Cao Cao, saying, "I don't intend to be a matchmaker every day. If you're interested in matchmaking, you could send your daughter to the palace. Perhaps His Majesty would allow you to be his father-in-law..."

"Lord Xuande is magnanimous... Cao Cao admires him."

Cao Cao bowed to Liu Bei.

"Just say I'm being willful..."

Liu Bei laughed and said, "I know many people have said that you were willful and reckless in the past... But do you think that when others say you are willful, they are criticizing you?"

"No, they were just jealous of you back then."

"I envy your sincerity back then, I envy your ability to act according to your true heart back then."

"Because they have no real ambition, only personal gain, they envy those willful people, and they also fear that there are willful people in the world."

"But how terrible it would be if there were no willful people left in the world..."

Cao Cao silently bowed and took his leave, but his heart felt like it was being torn apart.

Yes, people have always said that Cao Cao was willful, and that it was fortunate he had a good father who could clean up his messes, otherwise he probably would have died in some remote corner long ago.

After Cao Song was dismissed from his post, Cao Cao never acted "willfully" again.

After Cao Song's death, Cao Ang returned home, and Cao Cao began to clash with Liu Bei.

To outsiders, it seemed as if Cao Cao was at odds with Liu Bei because his father died in Linzi.

But in reality, both of them knew that wasn't the case.

However, after Cao Song's death, Cao Cao had more responsibilities and began to compromise with reality.

After alighting from Liu Bei's carriage, Cao Cao realized that Liu Bei had neither agreed to nor objected to Zhang Fei's marriage proposal.

The emperor's marriage was decided by the emperor himself, and Zhang Fei's marriage was naturally the same.

This really can only be considered a private matter between Xiahou Yuan and Zhang Fei.

(End of this chapter)