Chapter 192

"Haha! Brother Zhicai, do you think I am playing both sides?"

Su Fan smiled and continued, "It's not that I don't want to send troops early, but I dare not, and I cannot."

"Brother Zhicai, you haven't seen Zhang Jiao; you don't know how terrifying this person is. His cultivation is truly terrifying. I suspect his cultivation is at least at the Yin Spirit realm, or even reached the peak of the Yin Spirit."

"As long as this person is alive, I cannot openly attack the Yellow Turbans under the banner of the government."

"Once I do that, I worry he will take action. I cannot gamble with the tens of thousands of people of my Gao clan."

"So that's how it is. I understand." Xi Zhicai was also a clever man and immediately understood Su Fan's current situation.

"Zhang Jiao actually has such high cultivation."

His expression was also very grim.

"Indeed, his cultivation is rare. If the imperial court does not suppress or kill this person, the chaos of the Taiping Dao and the Yellow Turban army will never be resolved. The imperial court cannot kill all these hundreds of millions of Yellow Turban soldiers and civilians, can they?"

Su Fan's words left Xi Zhicai silent.

He knew that the greatest source of the Yellow Turban chaos was the Taiping Dao and this Great Virtuous Teacher of the Taiping Dao.

"Everyone has underestimated him."

After a long silence, Xi Zhicai sighed deeply.

Previously, in Yingchuan, he had communicated with many scholars. They had all originally thought that the Yellow Turban chaos did not pose much of a threat and that as soon as the imperial army arrived, they would surely be wiped out.

Yet now, the imperial court's Forbidden Army could not do anything to the Channel Commander of the Yellow Turbans.

Not to mention that with such a super expert sitting in command, the Taiping Dao Yellow Turban army had likely become extremely troublesome.

"The imperial court should know about Zhang Jiao's cultivation, right?"

"They didn't know before, but they should know something now. After all, Zhang Jiao is in Jizhou, and the imperial court sent General Lu to suppress him; they will definitely clash, and by then, they will probably be able to sense something."

Su Fan said uncertainly.

If it were him, he would not expose all his strength; showing it bit by bit could be used to trick people.

But what Zhang Jiao was thinking, he did not know.

After Su Fan finished speaking, Xi Zhicai fell silent again. He could imagine that the situation in Jizhou was probably even more difficult.

With an expert at the Yin Spirit True Person level sitting in command, even if General Lu had a million Forbidden Army troops, it would be difficult to threaten them.

Not to mention that the Yellow Turban army under Zhang Jiao's command was likely even larger, especially the Yellow Turban Warriors, which he had already witnessed.

If it weren't for the Yellow Turban Warriors, his father-in-law's fortress would have been difficult to breach with just those tens of thousands of Yellow Turban troops.

"Sigh!"

After a long time, Xi Zhicai sighed.

"Brother Zhicai, why are you so worried? These things should be considered by the imperial court. The imperial court's foundation is still there. No matter how powerful Zhang Jiao is, can he really overthrow the imperial court?"

Su Fan's words cheered Xi Zhicai up a little.

The Divine Han Dynasty had a foundation of 4,000 years. Yin Spirit True Persons were not unheard of, and even Yang Spirit True Monarchs had appeared more than a few times.

"Now, Brother Zhicai, you should consider settling your family first, and then take revenge for your father-in-law. As for the future, we'll talk about it later."

"Right! Brother Ning'an's reminder is correct."

Xi Zhicai nodded slowly. "Then in the future, I will have to ask for Brother Ning'an's care."

"Haha! No problem."

Su Fan laughed loudly upon hearing this. Although Xi Zhicai did not explicitly state he would follow him, his willingness to go to his side showed his intention.

The reason he did not submit to him now was probably because he was currently a commoner; how could he call him 'Lord'?

But this was a good thing, wasn't it?

Su Fan was somewhat confident about whether he could obtain the position of a Commandery Prefect. After all, the Divine Han imperial court was not much different from the Han court in historical novels.

The struggles between the pure-stream scholars, the prominent clans, and the eunuchs were controlled by Han Lingdi from behind the scenes.

Among the three parties, the pure-stream scholars were the weakest; many of them had no real power, while the prominent clans likely had the most power in the imperial court.

For this reason, Han Lingdi had to push the eunuchs out to counter them.

The buying and selling of official titles had also appeared in this world; what the eunuchs were doing was actually controlled by Han Lingdi from behind the scenes.

Otherwise, would a eunuch have such ability?

Su Fan did not comment on Han Lingdi's buying and selling of official titles, because he knew there must be a deeper meaning behind it.

First of all, by this time, although the Divine Han Dynasty still had majesty, its control over local areas had weakened too much.

The Emperor could control the Sili region because he had absolute military power, while other places were simply too far away.

Second, most local officials were recommended by prominent clans. Many people, even those from humble backgrounds, had already defected to those prominent clans before becoming officials.

Without defecting, they could not become officials at all; there was no channel for promotion.

The channel for promotion was the biggest problem for the current imperial court, which even Han Lingdi could not change.

That was why there was the channel of buying and selling official titles.

Of course, not just anyone could buy an official title; one needed a certain amount of merit, at least something that could be shown on the surface.

Han Lingdi's move was actually to plant his own people in local areas. The idea was good, but in reality, this method was not very clever.

The prominent clans turned around and labeled him a foolish ruler.

Furthermore, the prominent clans could also profit from it. When it came to money, would these prominent clans be lacking?

Of course, this had nothing to do with Su Fan. The struggle between the scholar-officials and imperial power had always existed and could never end.

From the beginning to the end of feudal dynasties, this struggle had always persisted.

During the founding period, imperial power overwhelmed everything because these emperors on horseback had supreme military power.

Han Lingdi wanted to fight back.

Su Fan did not think highly of it, because although he was somewhat clever, his political methods were not very sophisticated. Could he play schemes and tricks better than those old foxes?

Looking at history, those who wanted to use eunuchs to counter scholar-officials never had good results.

If you want to play the balance game, you need superb methods; otherwise, you will only bring about your own collapse.

Moreover, a true emperor always exercises tyranny, not some 'King's Path'; 'Inner Sage, Outer King' is what Confucianism advocates.

Emperors only have tyranny.

Because only in this way can power be completely concentrated and true centralization be achieved.

In history, the only ones who could use such methods were the First Emperor Ying Zheng and Zhu Yuanzhang.

Of course, Emperor Wu of Han and Zhu Di also used tyrannical methods; if you dared not listen, I would kill your whole family.

As for Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, he actually wanted to exercise tyranny while he was in power, but unfortunately, because his accession was illegitimate and the influence of the prominent clans at that time was too strong, he often could not exercise tyranny at all.

Zhu Di, who had the same experience as Li Shimin, was different. He was also an emperor on horseback, but in the society at that time, there were no longer prominent clans, and as for the landlord group, they did not pose much of a threat to him.

So he could be tyrannical, while Li Shimin could not.

These emperors could decide life and death with a single word; they had absolute, supreme power.

Han Lingdi had nothing; he could only rely on buying and selling official titles to accumulate wealth, thereby maintaining the military power he possessed.

Of course, if the Yellow Turban Rebellion had not broken out, perhaps he could have reclaimed some power, and after two or three generations of wise governance, the Divine Han might have had a chance for restoration.

Unfortunately, the outbreak of the Yellow Turbans would ultimately sever the roots of the Divine Han.