Chapter 18 Nonsense

While Cao Cao was recuperating, I reluctantly took on the task of commanding the Yellow Turban Army in Qingzhou. In view of the disparity in strength, in addition to following the previous cavalry raid tactics, in response to the drought and poor harvest in Qingzhou this year, a strategy of focusing on defense and cutting off the food supply from Qingzhou to the outside world was implemented.

Of course, visiting Cao Cao's condition every day is essential. Cao Cao can already get up and walk around, and the amount of food he eats every day is gradually increasing. It seems that he will be able to take charge of military affairs in a short time.

This period of time has made me dizzy and dizzy. From the recruitment and training of soldiers, the setting up of city defense checkpoints, the supply of weapons and food, to the eating, drinking, defecation, rewards and punishments of soldiers and generals, I am overwhelmed. Even so, there are Cheng Yu and Xun Yu in the rear who are strongly supporting, and Cao and Xiahou brothers in the front who are assisting, but it also makes me overwhelmed. Whenever I lie down tiredly, I feel like all the bones in my body are about to fall apart. It seems that it is not easy to be the main leader. No wonder Zhuge Liang, who was always hands-on, died in his fifties. It was too tiring. Chen Gong was not very satisfied with me temporarily taking charge of military affairs. After all, he was credited with Cao Cao's entry into Yanzhou. I was not as good as him in terms of reputation and qualifications, but Cao's army was in a difficult situation at the moment, and at this critical moment he could give up his personal preferences and go all out to make plans.

More than 20 days passed in a busy schedule. After handling military affairs that day, I dragged my tired body back to my residence. When I was still looking forward to the wonderful moment of lying in bed, I unexpectedly found that Cao Cao, who had not been out for almost a month, appeared in my room.

Seeing Cao Cao, who was very thin but seemed to be much more cheerful than when I visited him in the morning, I was overjoyed and said, "My lord is doing well!"

Cao Cao was flipping through the books I spread on the table. When he heard my greetings, he didn't even raise his head and just said, "Thank you for your hard work these days? Sit down."

I leaned over and found that my face was hot because of what Cao Cao was reading. These are some things I wrote based on the messy historical and political TV dramas I watched before, and according to my own ideas, about the construction of the political system and preventing military generals from monopolizing power in this cold weapon era. Because I wrote whatever came to my mind, and then I made corrections when I found something wrong, so some places were changed many times, and the whole silk cloth was completely unrecognizable by me, and even I looked very tired.

I sat aside and watched Cao Cao carefully flipping through these things that were not much cleaner than a rag, sometimes frowning and thinking, and sometimes smiling. The room was very quiet, I couldn't help but laugh and fell asleep. In the dimness, it was dark, and someone turned on the lights in the house. But I was so sleepy that I couldn't turn off so many things, so I turned over and continued to sleep.

I closed my eyes and stretched hard. It was the first time in so many days that I had such a comfortable sleep. The feeling of hunger in my stomach made me sit up. I looked out the window and was shocked. It was already daybreak. The war was tense. How could I, the acting supervisor, sleep until I woke up naturally?

Seeing me sit up suddenly, Cao Cao, who had not slept all night, laughed and said, "Fengxiao is not urgent. I have ordered them to handle today's military affairs at their discretion."

"Jia is rude!" I stood up and stretched myself and said, "My lord, have you not slept all night?"

Cao Cao said, "Who can fall asleep after seeing Fengxiao's masterpiece?"

I shook my head and said, "Only my lord and I would treasure this kind of ghost painting." I apologized and went outside to wash my face. I ordered my followers to get some food before returning to the house.

Cao Cao asked me when he saw me coming in: "Fengxiao, people say that food and grass should be sent before the troops move, but what you wrote here is that the army cannot have three days of food. What does this mean?"

I said: "My lord, the army cannot have three days of food does not mean that all armies are like this. Border defense towns and dangerous checkpoints must have enough food and grass to prevent them from being lost due to lack of food after being besieged. The army I wrote about refers to the army other than the army that guards the capital and border defense towns when the world is pacified."

Thinking for a while, Cao Cao nodded and said: "What if the country does not have money for a year?"

I explained: "In addition to the necessary reserves, the money and grain taxes collected by the state should be used as much as possible, rather than building granaries and money warehouses to store them."

Cao Cao shook his head to show that he could not understand, and I thought to myself: "This is I don't understand. Fortunately, I didn't write the concept of deficit. However, it seems that the Chinese still can't understand deficit in the 20th century, let alone now. But I seem to be one of those people who don't understand it! "

Then he answered a few questions that I still haven't figured out. Finally, Cao Cao asked: "Fengxiao, there is a paragraph above that has been overwritten too much, and it is really hard to understand. What does the Eight Kings' Political Consultation, the Cabinet, and the Parliament mean?"

"This..." I felt dizzy. One day I remembered that the Eight Kings' Political Consultation was a thing that the Eight Kings proposed to Yongzheng to restore the ancestral system in order to seize power in the movie "Yongzheng Dynasty". This thing is definitely not a good thing. If it is really implemented, it will sow the seeds of division. If Cao Cao had learned this, the whole country would have been in chaos before the Five Barbarians invaded China. So I had to patiently explain: "The Eight Kings' Political Consultation is to divide the imperial power among several people. It is a strategy to destroy the enemy. If the enemy can adopt such a system, the enemy will be in chaos without fighting. The cabinet is to exercise military and political power on behalf of the three ministers and the generals. As for the parliament... the parliament is..."

Seeing that I hesitated again and again, Cao Cao said: "Just tell me!"

"The parliament is..." For a moment I didn't know how to explain it, so I thought of a clever way: "The parliament is to prevent the court from being monopolized by relatives and eunuchs. It is composed of scholars, wealthy families and knowledgeable people among the poor. It has the right to pardon ministers and people who are wrongly arrested and veto the court's wrongful orders. These are just my own thoughts when I have nothing to do. My lord, don't take them seriously." After I finished speaking, I wanted to laugh at my own words. I interpreted a good parliament as a place that was meant to go against the emperor.

"Parliament! Parliament! If..." Cao Cao repeatedly chewed the meaning of the two words, and there was something more in his eyes.

After half a year of hard fighting, Cao's army reversed the passive situation against the Yellow Turban Army in Qingzhou. At this time, the Yellow Turban Army in Qingzhou suffered heavy casualties and encountered famine, and its combat effectiveness was greatly weakened. Several successful attacks captured tens of thousands of enemy troops. These surrendered people were used as pioneers to gradually compress the scope of activities of the Yellow Turban Army in Qingzhou inward. At this time, Xun You, who was recommended by Xun Yu and was reused, persuaded Cao Cao to surrender the main force of the Yellow Turban Army in Qingzhou, so Cao Cao sent a letter of persuasion and listed many preferential conditions. Under the soft and hard attacks of Cao's army, all the Yellow Turban Army in Qingzhou surrendered. During this period, a large number of civil officials and military generals came to surrender, including Liu Ye, whose courtesy name was Ziyang; Man Chong, whose courtesy name was Bo Ning; Lu Mingqian, whose courtesy name was Zike; Mao Jie, whose courtesy name was Xiaoxian; Dian Wei, etc. For a time, Cao Cao had counselors and generals, and the Cao army was powerful in Shandong.

Cao Cao reorganized the surrendered Yellow Turban Army and selected the strongest ones to join the army. These were the world-famous "Qingzhou Soldiers", which were said to be 300,000 strong, and there were also millions of families who cultivated land according to the model of Dongwuyang. After a year of hard work, the political and military strength of Cao's army was expanded.

At this time, a bad news came from Chang'an. After the court learned that Liu Dai, the governor of Yanzhou, had died in battle, it recommended Jin Shang as the governor of Yanzhou. A friend of Cao Cao in Chang'an wrote to inform him that Jin Shang would take office soon.