Chapter 241 He really became the only prime minister of the empire
The power of inertia is really strong.
Even in this current state, even in the state where the Jinwen School has been defeated mentally and physically by Liu Bei, it is still extremely difficult to destroy his spirit.
It is a long and arduous task to ideologically reshape the Han Empire, so it is a good choice to pay a little attention to the trends of folk thoughts.
Therefore, Liu Bei handed over the letter screening process to Ruan Yu, the person in charge of the public opinion war, letting him wear multiple hats and eat two things.
When understanding public opinion, you can also be alert to the spread of some bad ideas, so that Ruan Yu can discover it as soon as possible and formulate corresponding strategies as soon as possible.
A war of public opinion must be fought at any time. The more aloof a person is, the more they must pay attention to the influence of public opinion. It is not enough to ignore it.
Ruan Yu was very happy about this and devoted himself to the job with great interest. After a while, he came to see Liu Bei with the letters he selected that he considered the most valuable and representative, and divided them into different categories.
The letter was given to Liu Bei.
"The few ones are just nonsense and meaningless, but if you need them, I'll pick out some that look more pleasing to the eye, which can be regarded as something."
"The majority of these letters are the letters you need that provide suggestions and highlight your talents. Some of them are quite interesting. After reading them, I feel that there are indeed some talented people among them."
Ruan Yu said with a smile: "Your method is good. It not only allows some people to vent their emotions and improve their opinions of you, but also allows you to understand some trends in folk thought. Killing two birds with one stone is what you are best at."
Liu Bei smiled.
"It's good if it's effective. If it's effective, it means that the people among the people still have confidence and ideas in us. If there aren't even serious letters and they're all just moaning and groaning, that's not good. That means that the people among the people still have confidence and ideas in us.
Something big is going to happen."
"That's what you said."
"So, after reading this, what do you think about the trends among the people during this period of time?"
"Generally speaking, there are no very strange trends. It's just that after we destroyed the Modern Literature School, some scholars among the people didn't seem to have much confidence in ancient Chinese classics, and turned to study the early days of the founding of the Han Dynasty.
It’s Huang Lao’s technique.”
Ruan Yu said slowly: "It seems that there are not many such people at present. One of the five or six letters mentioned Taoism and Huang Lao's art. In their view, ancient classics and modern classics are not the same.
There is no essential difference.
The modern classics failed, and the ancient classics might also fail. They all had some doubts about Confucianism and believed that the difficulties since the ZTE were all caused by Confucianism. They should turn back to the right path and try to rebuild
Return to the era of Wenjing's rule."
"If you want to use Huang Lao's skills to return to Wenjing's rule, this is not a simple matter."
Liu Bei nodded slowly, picked up a letter, opened it and read it for a while.
"What a coincidence. This is an article advocating the art of Huang Lao. The writing is quite interesting."
"Um?"
"This is not only criticizing some of the errors and disasters caused by Confucianism, but also advocating the use of Huang-Lao's techniques for targeted improvements, and also proposing relevant methods, striving to complete the reform within three years, so that the Han Dynasty can
Return to the era of Wen and Jing's rule, completely abandon Confucianism, and depose all high-ranking officials."
"oh!"
Ruan Yu smiled and said: "I remember, this letter was written by an imperial student named Chen Mu. He was very courageous and his words were very sharp, especially when you yourself are also the head of a high-ranking family.
This letter is truly groundbreaking."
"Well, that's interesting."
Liu Bei smiled and said: "Not only are he dissatisfied with the modern classics, but he also feels that the ancient classics are of the same kind. The way for the Han Dynasty to truly get out of its decline is to return to the rule of tranquility and inaction.
He believes that the main reason why civil wars have occurred in the past twenty years is because the court officials are ruthless and wanton. The court officials ask for and take from the people, and they take too much, so that they are using Confucian techniques on the surface, but they are committing violence in their hearts.
The art of Qin Legalism.
The same is true for the imperial court itself. On the surface, it claims to be benevolent and righteous, but in fact it is extortionate, unbenevolent, and only harsh. If there is no real change, even the ancient literary school will follow the old path, so Confucianism should be completely abandoned."
"Don't say it. Although it is a little immature in some places, it makes some sense."
Ruan Yu said with a smile: "Many of the chaos we have seen in recent years were caused by corrupt officials. The imperial taxation has also become more and more serious. It really has the intention of tyrannizing the Qin Dynasty, which is similar to the frivolous corvee and low taxation at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
, it really makes a big difference.”
Liu Bei nodded.
"So, he expressed strong dissatisfaction with this and believed that if I wanted to change the status quo, then after eliminating the Modern Literature School, what I should do was not support the Ancient Literature School, but return to the rule of Wenjing, implement reforms, and adopt the techniques of Huang and Lao.
Governing the country.
He wants me to change my current promising state, do light corvee and low taxes, rest with the people, try not to disturb the people, and let the people recover on their own. He also wants me to reduce the number of officials, reduce the number of officials, and restrict the power and behavior of officials.
.
It would be best to change the three-level system of prefectures and counties to the two-level system of state and county, and remove the county level, so that we can save... Oh, this guy even calculated the accounts for me, let me take a look and find him
In this way, by removing the first-level organizational structure, at least 10,000 officials and four to five times the number of staff can be reduced."
Liu Bei looked up at Ruan Yu and smiled.
"This man is shouting about being quiet and inactive, but all the people he uses are Daweiwei who are more powerful than me. He has reduced 10,000 officials and 40,000 officials. The big man has only 160,000 officials in total. He came here to kill
The entire officialdom of the Han Dynasty has been cut off by one-third. How can this be quiet and inactive? This is fatal."
"I was also shocked by it, so I brought this letter to you."
Ruan Yu said with a smile: "Compared with this article, the other articles all seem a bit petty. They are all joking around and talking about boring things. Only this one is really talking about things.
Although it seems a bit arrogant, it can also represent the dissatisfaction of a considerable number of people with the policies pursued by the current court and the dissatisfaction with the misbehavior of court officials."
"Yes, I am indeed very dissatisfied. Didn't I hate corrupt officials so much back then?"
Liu Bei put down the letter and said with a smile: "But what he said was too violent. He spoke to ten thousand officials. The fact that he can have such thoughts shows that he does not have a deep understanding of Taoist classics.
He was probably just dissatisfied with reality, and then he briefly read some Taoist classics, without systematically studying or understanding them, so he mixed Confucianism, Legalism and Taoism together to create a three-dimensional image."
Ruan Yu didn't know much about Taoist classics and asked curiously: "Aren't you specialized in "Zuo Shi Chun Qiu" and "Guwen Shangshu"? Are you also involved in Taoist classics?"
"After coming to Luoyang, I took a lot of time and read a lot of books, including Taoist classics and even some documents and records from the Wenjing era. I also read them all."
Liu Bei said slowly: "The Taoist technique is said to be quiet and inactive, but in fact, the real essence lies in following the rules."
"follow?"
Liu Bei nodded.
"Well, Sima Tan, Tai Shigong's father, knows a lot about Taoist art. He once said that its art is based on nothingness and uses conformity. Silence and inaction are the pursuit and ideal of Taoist art. If you want to achieve
The most important thing is to follow this ideal.
Sima Tan generally believes that Taoist techniques have no fixed rules, and the most important thing is to follow the principles of nature, adapt to changes, and take advantage of the situation. It may seem like nothing, but in fact it is very promising. And this kind of promising can be like the drizzle on a spring night, moistening everything fine.
Silence, this is the highest ideal pursued by Taoists, and I cannot live up to it."
"So, what Chen Mu said is somewhat reasonable?"
Ruan Yu asked: "Should we call him to have an in-depth talk with him? This person is somewhat famous within the Imperial College, and his grades are quite good. He also often delivers some public speeches within the Imperial College. There are not a few Taixue students who are influenced by him.
.”
"No need, he is still too immature. Moreover, we are doing what he said and doing it even better."
???
Ruan Yu looked at Liu Bei with a question mark on his head.
"what do you mean?"
"Am I not clear enough?"
Liu Bei looked at Ruan Yu with a smile: "Yuan Yu, the art of Taoism lies in nothingness, but also in compliance. He saw nothingness, but did not see compliance. Of course, it is not his fault. Without enough experience, he cannot see compliance.
The essence of.”
"The essence of Yinxun?"
Ruan Yu was puzzled and said: "My subordinates are not very talented and have little knowledge, so I would like to ask your lord to give me some advice."
Liu Bei nodded and said slowly: "If you don't understand the rules, you can't be quiet and do nothing. If you don't understand the rules, you can't be quiet and do nothing. It's not as good as me, using military force to force reforms. At least I can really do it."
He could do it, but he couldn't do it at all.
Eliminating the first-level organizational structure and laying off 50,000 officials is of course a good thing. It will save the court a lot of money, and it will also prevent the corrupt officials among them from continuing to act recklessly. It will also be good for the people, but does he think that these people who have been laid off will be
Will 50,000 officials be captured without mercy?
How did I deal with them? I used troops to directly make them unable to fight against me. Only in this way can I succeed. But what about him? With just a few words, there are more than 160,000 officials in the country. How to cut them by 50,000? Who should be cut and who should not be cut.
?
Moreover, these 50,000 reduction quotas will cause more than 100,000 people to worry before they are actually implemented. They will all worry that they will be laid off, lose their power, lose their status and interests.
trouble.
In order not to be laid off, these officials will resolutely stand against our opponents even if they are afraid. Believe it or not, if I do this, the power of Zheng Tai and Jia Xi's gang will instantly expand ten thousand times.