The emperor led Xun Yu into the hall and sat down with his knees. Xun Yu talked happily and analyzed the current situation for the emperor.

If we admit that Sun Ce is not an ignorant person like Liang Ji and He Jin, then the biggest difference between him and the emperor is actually a dispute over governance. In short, it is a dispute over the benevolent politics of Mencius and Xunzi's etiquette and law.

Mencius and Xunzi are both representative figures of Confucianism, and their goals are the same, all for realizing the kingly way. The difference lies in the means of realization. Mencius hopes that the king will be kind and govern, and practice the kingly way, and put virtue first, and virtue is in line with etiquette. Xunzi hopes that the king will be domineering first, then the kingly way, first talk about etiquette, and then talk about virtue.

As for these two, Mencius was more idealistic, while Xunzi was more pragmatic. Because of this, Mencius failed to persuade the kings. Although Xunzi himself did not have the opportunity to practice, his two disciples were appreciated by the King of Qin, one was practically and the other theoretically, laying the foundation for the King of Qin to unify the world.

This also shows that from Mencius and Xunzi were in line with the development trend of history. Xunzi's development of Confucianism did not create anything out of nothing, but followed the situation. He not only retained the benevolence and righteousness of Confucius and Mencius as scriptures, but also strengthened the power of etiquette and law, which was a kind of progress rather than a regression.

For the current situation, Xunzi's etiquette and law are more realistic than Mencius' benevolent policies, especially for the emperor.

The emperor is the monarch and Sun Ce is the minister. The difference in established identities gives the emperor more initiative, which gives Sun Ce an invisible restriction. No matter whether he has lofty goals or is concerned about the relationship between the monarch and the ministers in the future, he cannot do anything unscrupulously, so as not to lose the word of the person, be imitated in the future, and endanger his status.

Sun Ce didn't read much, but he was obviously not a reckless person like Liang Ji. When he saw this, he chose to compete for the people's hearts and win upright. Judging from the development trend, he also has this strength, and it won't take too long.

But he hasn't.

Why not? There are many reasons. One of them cannot be ignored: that is, although Mencius's benevolent government is good, it is not perfect. The most obvious weakness is that it cannot respond to emergency situations and cannot face troubled times. There must be a prerequisite for benevolent government, that is, there must be no external troubles, which is also the reason why Mencius was not recognized in his life. Sun Ce had to force it to fight for the hearts of the people, and naturally he could not escape this dilemma.

Sun Ce did love the people. He loved the people not just by saying it, but by doing it himself. He seized the land of aristocratic families, so that the people could have land to cultivate; reduced taxes, so that the people could have food and clothing; opened workshops so that the people could work to subsidize their family income. The people under his rule were stable and every family was rich, which was indeed a benevolent government.

But he himself owed a large debt.

Where do these debts come from? Conquest. War not only requires tens of thousands of young and strong laborers, but also consumes a lot of money and grain. A 100,000 army can transport thousands of miles a day, and a stone can be achieved if there are dozens of minutes. The further the battlefield, the longer the front line, the greater his consumption. Sun Ce opened a workshop and advocated that business could solve the problem of money, but he could not solve the problem of food. Instead, the increase in the population of food intake increased the shortage of food consumption.

On the contrary, the emperor was in a position to defend Guanzhong without such pressure. The implementation of the sage system allowed Guanzhong to have enough troops to defend themselves and enough food to feed themselves, and the rest was to confront Sun Ce.

If the weapon of self-improvement in Guanzhong is law, then the weapon confronting Sun Ce is etiquette. He restrains Sun Ce with etiquette and law, requires Sun Ce to pay taxes to the court, requires Sun Ce to personally enter the court to take charge of the government, and send his children according to the court's etiquette and law, and restrains Sun Ce step by step. If Sun Ce follows, that would be great. If he does not follow, he will violate etiquette and law, and the court can attack him with pride.

Sun Ce was in the position of a minister and had some concerns and could not exceed the etiquette. He could neither take the initiative to attack the central government nor prevent it. He could only maintain more than 100,000 troops and remain on guard. This was a huge consumption. Once a war broke out, the consumption would be even more astonishing, and sooner or later it would drag Sun Ce down and make it unsustainable.

In the chaotic times, Mencius's benevolent and political affairs are not as good as Xunzi's etiquette and law, which has been proven by history. It is common sense that war will perish, and it is also an immediate thing for the Han Dynasty to be exhausted by the Qiang Rebellion.

In the final analysis, as long as the court can defend Guanzhong, use static and continuously apply pressure, Sun Ce is constantly eroded by the expenses of more than 100,000 troops and cannot accumulate strength, he can always wait until the day of counterattack. Taking a rash attack will easily give Sun Ce the opportunity to quickly defeat him.

The emperor was fascinated by the sound of the words and echoed. He passed on the plans of Liu Ye, Liu Ba and others to Xun Yu. Fundamentally, their goals were consistent, both of them were calm and instead of attacking. In terms of specific plans, Xun Yu focused on the overall situation, while Liu Ye and Liu Ba focused on specific tactics. They proposed to make the king a promise, so that Cao Cao, Liu Bei, Yuan Tan, Jia Xu and others would continue to put pressure on Sun Ce to submit.

Xun Yu did not object in principle, but he emphasized that politeness was first and then military, and that he could not give people a handle, and that he lost the hearts of the people.

The emperor nodded and agreed.

On the first day of March, the court meeting.

General Yang Xiu attended the court meeting for the first time and met with the Three Dukes and Nine Ministers and some officials from various offices.

Yang Xiu looked at him and saw that most of the faces in the court were unknown. They were all young and strong sects from Liangzhou. Although their official positions were not high and they were not qualified to speak at the court meeting, they were very energetic and looked eager to try.

Yang Xiu was calm and polite, and there was no point in criticizing him.

The general was in charge of internal and external affairs and was a well-deserved head of court officials. Sun Ce also had the identity of King Wu. The combination of the two allowed him to have a seat under the emperor's throne. Other civil and military officials could only set up seats under him. First, there were royal families headed by King Chen Liu Chong, and then ministers headed by Grand Tutor Huangfu Song, and the officials of various prefectures and temples sat or stood behind the head of the chief of the office.

Yang Xiu was the chief general, so he sat behind Sun Ce's seat. Sun Ce's seat was empty, silently showing his existence to people.

After discussing several matters in routine, the emperor turned to Yang Xiu. "Yang Qing, you entered the court as the general and met with the ministers for the first time. Many people had never met each other. Why not get to know each other first, and then express your opinions on the discussion of related matters and think about each other. How about it?"

Yang Xiu bowed and accepted the order. "Now!"

The emperor turned to Xun Yu again. "Let's Lord, you are old friends with Yang Qing and familiar with the Lords, why don't you please introduce it?"

Xun Yu bowed and was about to speak, but Yang Xiu said again: "Your Majesty, I am brave enough to make a suggestion."

The emperor didn't mind at all. "Yang Qing said frankly."

"The Master said: You can speak without saying anything, and you will lose people; you cannot speak without saying anything, and you will lose people. The ministers and the kings in the court have never known each other, but what they want to discuss is a major matter related to the world. How can you not know the person and lose people? The Master also said: I listen to his words and observe his actions. I would like to listen to his words and observe his actions, ask the way of sages, and use the art of sages to make the people to know whether the person can speak."

The emperor exchanged glances with Xun Yu and smiled knowingly. Yang Xiu was really crazy and not humble at all. He had to take the imperial examination for the first time when he met.

"What do you think?"

"I think I can do it." m.
Chapter completed!