Chapter 171

Xiao Baoyue sneered: "What a big tone! As a scholar, just examining books and studying classics, looking for texts and playing with chapters, you actually dare to speak wildly, saying that the Prime Minister's strategy has places it didn't reach! Since that's the case, then you come and tell me about the Prime Minister's strategy of pacifying the barbarians that didn't reach! Let me see the high opinion of the talented scholar!"

Xiao Baoyue saw that Wang Yang knew some history, and originally had a slight change of view on him. Now that she heard him actually pointing out that the Prime Minister's strategy of pacifying the barbarians had "places it didn't reach," she immediately felt that scholars were indeed frivolous, and they didn't change their frivolous nature even after reading a few lines of history books. So she deliberately added a sarcastic emphasis on the word "talented scholar."

"Easy." Wang Yang had a bowl of ice, had some spirit, brushed his folding fan, and said slowly: "The strategy of pacifying the barbarians should be a mixture of kingly and hegemonic ways."

Xiao Baoyue shook her head and smiled: "Big and useless."

Wang Yang was not angry, smiled and said: "Do you know where the biggest problem is in governing the southern barbarians in all dynasties?"

Xiao Baoyue only felt bored, drank the pear soup in small sips, and responded lazily: "Where is it?"

"Using power is not enough to submit, using virtue is not enough to soothe."

Xiao Baoyue tasted these ten words and frowned slightly.

Wang Yang didn't wait for Xiao Baoyue to think carefully, and asked: "If you use all the troops of Qi to attack the southern barbarians, and borrow five years, can you pacify them?"

Xiao Baoyue pondered without speaking.

Wang Yang asked again: "If you borrow ten years, can you destroy their species?"

Xiao Baoyue was silent for a while and said: "This is a battle of national destruction. In the Later Han Dynasty, the war against Qiang lasted for more than ten years, the troops were tired, the treasury was exhausted, and the country was exhausted because of it. If the world is not yet decided, the northern captives are proud, don't say chaos for five years, I am afraid that once the turmoil starts, the Hu cavalry will go south. At that time, the southern barbarians will be chaotic from within, and the northern captives will attack from without, then the big event will be gone."

Wang Yang nodded: "Not bad. The death of the Later Han Dynasty finally ended in Huan and Ling, and was completed in the party prohibition, and the disaster started from the Qiang and Hu..."

Hearing this, Xiao Baoyue's expression changed, and her posture sat up slightly.

"In the Yongchu pacification of Qiang, it lasted for fourteen years, using 24 billion coins; at the end of Yonghe, the army went out again, fighting for seven years, using 8 billion coins. Searching the mountains and valleys, beheading a million, the Qiang people almost had no descendants. However, it shook the borders of several states, consuming thousands of gold every day, the world was exhausted, and the national fortune also declined to this point. When the Later Han Dynasty was at its peak, the army was strong in the world! Slaughtering the Qiang and destroying their species, blood stained the wilderness, seeking to kill them all! However, after the Han Dynasty died, the Qiang people rose again, becoming one of the Sixteen Kingdoms, competing in the Central Plains, and causing chaos in China. Then the Qiang people's species, how could they be exhausted by the Han Dynasty?"

Xiao Baoyue was thoughtful.

Wang Yang stopped talking after saying this.

Xiao Baoyue thought for a while, looked at Wang Yang: "You continue."

Wang Yang covered his forehead with his right hand, looking listless: "This sun is too poisonous."

Xiao Baoyue's beautiful eyes narrowed, and her aura gradually turned cold.

Under Xiao Baoyue's cold gaze, Wang Yang was calm and composed, while blocking the sun, he stretched.

The two stood in a stalemate for a while, Xiao Baoyue said: "Seeing Lian San, shade him."

"Yes." Seeing Lian San bowed and responded.

The umbrella opened and the shadow fell, supporting a piece of cool shade.

Wang Yang only felt refreshed, and ordered Seeing Lian San to adjust the angle to ensure that the sunlight was blocked out without a trace: "Lower a bit, lower, lower, right..."

Xiao Baoyue urged coldly: "Alright, you've put on enough airs, continue."

Wang Yang moved his muscles and bones in the umbrella shadow, and then said slowly:

"With the strength of the Han Dynasty, it was impossible to kill and destroy the Qiang species. Now our dynasty's territory is only half of the Han Dynasty. If we want to sweep away the barbarians and leave no descendants, how can we get it? If we attack but don't finish, if we conquer but don't remove, the superior is like the Prime Minister's 'rough pacification,' and the inferior is that the army has not left its territory, and the barbarian's heart of rebellion has already sprouted. Therefore, the chaos of the southern barbarians has not been cut off from the Han, Wu, Jin, and Song to the present. This is the so-called 'using power is not enough to submit'."

Xiao Baoyue nodded: "Then the next sentence 'using virtue is not enough to soothe' I can probably guess what it means. This is saying that the barbarians are stubborn and ignorant, so it is difficult to soothe with virtue, and easy to submit with power. Therefore, although there is no lack of people who use virtue to soothe them in all dynasties, they can never succeed. Right?"

"Using virtue may be temporarily effective, but grace and righteousness are all tied to one person's body, and whether the transformation is successful or not depends entirely on the other party's intention; or the tea is cold when people leave; or raising proud captives; or returning grievances with virtue; or raising hatred with rice, all kinds of things, not one is enough, this is the so-called using virtue is not enough to soothe."

Xiao Baoyue pondered: "Using power is not enough to submit, using virtue is not enough to soothe... So we should use power and virtue together."

Wang Yang said: "Using power and virtue together is not as good as mixing kingly and hegemonic ways."

"Isn't the kingly way using virtue? Isn't the hegemonic way using power? What is the difference?" Xiao Baoyue asked.

"The kingly way and using virtue are different, and the hegemonic way and using power are different. Using virtue is not enough to be king of the world, using virtue and using means, and then you can be called the kingly way."

"I already know about using virtue, what are the means?"

"Do you really know about using virtue?" Wang Yang asked back.

"Of course. Since ancient times, there have been many people who used virtue to govern the southern barbarians. Zhang Yi of Shu was the Governor of Yuexi, persuading the barbarians with grace and trust, and rewarding them heavily; Sun Qian guarded the Three Gorges, spreading the transformation of grace, and all the barbarian people captured were released home; Zang Yan supervised Yiyang and Wu Ning two commanderies, entered the border with a single car, without soldiers and weapons, and the barbarians were happy and submissive; Liu Dan was the Governor of Yongzhou, sent envoys to persuade the rebellious barbarians of the Yi River, allowing them to return to their original residence and change their mistakes..."

Wang Yang laughed: "What kind of virtue is this..."

"Then what is using virtue?"

Wang Yang stopped smiling: "Since ancient times, all have valued China and despised the barbarians. If you can treat them as one, you are a true king."

Xiao Baoyue only felt it was unbelievable: "Treat them as one? Barbarians, Rong, and Di are called the Four Barbarians, the system of nine services, the land is in the wilderness. The meaning of 'Spring and Autumn' is to be inside the Xia and outside the barbarians. Barbarians are people with left-lapels, who don't know rites and music. In ancient times, they were treated as birds and fish, how can they be equal to China?"

Wang Yang cleared his throat: "A bit thirsty."

"Someone, serve tea."

"I don't want tea, I want iced plum juice, the one you are drinking."

Xiao Baoyue was slightly stunned, and then laughter quickly gathered in her long autumn eyes. At first, it was just the corners of her mouth rising, and then it was out of control, laughing until her body trembled, her graceful waist lying on the table, like wind blowing on a charming willow, soft and moving.

Wang Yang didn't know what made her laugh like this, could it be because he ordered a drink?

Although taking the initiative to ask for a drink is indeed a bit off-putting, I am so hot, what else can I care about? Besides, is the demeanor important or the plum juice important?

Of course, plum juice is important!

Wang Yang had long wanted to drink this!

Xiao Baoyue supported herself, endured her laughter and said: "This is a medicinal drink for women's blood loss. Plum is burned into ash and ground into powder, adjusted with plum juice. Are you sure you want to drink it?"

Wang Yang: -_-|||

"Uh... then... then give me a cup of iced plum juice without anything added."

The plum juice was soon sent over. This time it was okay, it wasn't a cup, but a pot.

Wang Yang drank two large mouthfuls in a row. The dark purple cold juice instantly spread in his mouth and throat, sweeping away the dry heat, bringing a thorough and refreshing comfort. How refreshing it is!!!

Xiao Baoyue said: "Say it after drinking, I want to hear your fallacies."

"It's not my fallacy, but your heart is small. The transformation of the Great Harmony in ancient times, people don't only love their own relatives, don't only love their own children, how can they distinguish between China and barbarians? King Wen was born in the Eastern Yi, Great Yu was born in the Western Qiang, although it is not a certain argument, the sages are born, why must they be in a fixed place? In the early Zhou Dynasty, Chu was called a barbarian, so are the people of Chu today all descendants of barbarians? In the Han Dynasty, the border people were sad and bitter, heard the music in the Xiongnu, and many fled into it, and their descendants continued, so the descendants of the Xiongnu should also be separated into Hu and Han?

You said the meaning of 'Spring and Autumn' is to be inside the Xia and outside the barbarians. This is certainly correct. However, the distinction between Yi and Xia in 'Spring and Autumn' is not based on blood, but on culture. If China acts like barbarians, it is treated as barbarians; if barbarians have the heart of China, it is treated as China. In the fourth year of Duke Ding, Wu worried about China and attacked Chu, 'Spring and Autumn' praised it and allowed it to be called 'Wu Zi'; in the twelfth year of Duke Xuan, Jin lost morality and provoked Chu to fight, 'Spring and Autumn' despised it, directly wrote the name without courtesy, so 'Spring and Autumn Fan Lu' says: 'Spring and Autumn has no general words, follow the change and move, now Jin changes to barbarians, Chu changes to gentlemen, so move the words to follow the event.'

From this, we know that the distinction between Yi and Xia is not a fixed division, based on their actions and not on their species, based on their culture and not on their blood. Confucius said 'there is no class in education,' 'Book of Changes' says: 'Observe the humanities to transform the world.' The stronger one is, the more inclusive one is, and the more sensitive one is, the more inferior one is. With an open mind, one can accommodate all rivers and include everything! With a narrow pattern, one can only shrink and not move forward, sealing oneself in a corner!

When the Son of Heaven treats all things, heaven covers and earth carries, if there is someone who returns to me, I must treat them well!

How about the barbarians? If I transform them and make them all my people, then they are not barbarians!

The mandate of heaven dominates the people, and we should embody the heart of heaven as our own governance!

When heaven treats all things, how can there be thickness and thinness?

If you equalize China and barbarians, you can combine China and barbarians into one family!

If you equalize the world, you can combine the world into one unification!"

Crack!

The ice bowl in Xiao Baoyue's hand fell and shattered, her eyes rippling violently!

——————

Note: "Zhengzhi Zhunsheng: Women's Branch": "Prescription for treating women's blood collapse: Use plum burned into ash and ground into powder, adjusted with plum soup, wine adjustment is also okay."