Chapter 425

Only in this way can he compete for the world with those scholar-official families in Guandong.

Otherwise, with this chaotic Liangzhou and its population of hundreds of thousands, why would he compete for the world with the scholar-officials in Guanzhong, where Hanyang Commandery alone has a population of millions?

In Jizhou, one commandery alone can support a million troops.

What about Liangzhou?

Let alone a million, even a hundred thousand is impossible.

Liangzhou has a total population of only five or six hundred thousand.

Even adding the six hundred thousand population of Bingzhou, it is only a million people.

Without strong productivity, supporting a hundred thousand troops by taking one out of ten will only accelerate the collapse of the rear.

Therefore, we must find a balance point, both to pacify Liang and to govern Liang.

Even to govern the Qiang for one's own use.

Another way is to increase productivity and absorb people.

This requires an opportunity.

The Yellow Turban Rebellion.

The root of the Yellow Turban Rebellion is not that a group of believers wanted to break any rules.

The root of the Yellow Turban Rebellion is because the people were not fed, because of severe land annexation, and because of constant natural and man-made disasters leading to the emergence of refugees and rioters.

While Duan Yu was weighing this in his heart, Jia Xu also spoke.

"If the Lord governs Liang and only uses suppression, like today, then over time, it will inevitably lead to joint resistance."

"Eventually, it will lead the Lord to only go further and further on the path of governing Liang, only able to use constant suppression."

"Suppression, establishing power, and deterrence are only means, not a policy for governing Liang."

"The Lord must distinguish this."

Duan Yu nodded.

He understood this.

Constant killing can only bring fear; it is fine while he is in Liangzhou, but once he is not in Liangzhou one day, fear will breed resistance.

Or rather, after the fear is accumulated to a certain extent, it will cause a violent rebound.

This is the principle that things will reverse when they reach an extreme.

Therefore, establishing power and suppression are only means; they must be supplemented by methods that can domesticate the Qiang.

"I know what Wenhe said; I will consider this carefully," Duan Yu said, nodding.

Jia Xu nodded slightly and then stood up and bowed: "Lord, I can only plan for the Lord, but as for internal affairs, it is not my specialty."

Duan Yu rubbed his eyebrows.

It's hard.

It's fucking hard.

He felt that the time-travel script he got was different from others.

After others travel, they don't need anything else; they just need to shake their tiger bodies, and those people, no matter where they are, even places the protagonist can't name, will pop up on their own.

Then they bow down to the protagonist and serve him as their master.

Why is it different for him?

Look at the group of people around him now.

They are all big, rough men.

All of them are military generals.

And they are all military generals of the Northern Group.

He also went to Luoyang and saw the talents.

Xu You, the sons of the Xun family, the Guo family of Yingchuan, and the Han family of Yingchuan, he saw them all.

Why didn't one of them bow down to him in admiration?

Of course, these were just Duan Yu's mutterings in his heart.

If those sons of the scholar-official families bowed down to him, that would be strange.

Just look at Yuan Shao.

Although Yuan Shao doesn't even have an official position now, looking at the people around him makes it clear.

Before the world is in chaos, what kind of person takes what path, all within the rules.

To be an official in the Eastern Han, there are three paths to take.

One is academic, such as the great scholars Ma Rong, Zheng Xuan, and Cai Yong; this is the path of being an official through academics.

Using world-shaking learning to achieve the name of a great scholar.

But this path achieves high academic and fame status, but in politics, it generally does not have deep and lasting influence.

Another is similar to the Yingchuan scholar-officials and the Runan Yuan family, using family-transmitted Confucian classics to take the path of civil governance.

With the Runan Yuan family's family-transmitted 'Meng's Book of Changes', the Yingchuan Guo family's 'Small Du's Code', etc...

These family-transmitted Confucian classics, like 'Meng's Book of Changes' and 'Small Du's Code', are ways of governing the country and the people, so those who have family-transmitted Confucian classics often have high political status, and their students and former officials are all over the world.

The last one is the path of promotion through military merit.

That is the path Duan Yu is taking now.

And among these three paths, the one that the scholar-official families of the world look down on the most and disdain the most is the path Duan Yu is taking now.

Because military merit reaches the end, and in the end, one cannot avoid being suspected by the emperor.

If a civil official or scholar-official wants to rebel, it won't happen in ten years.

But a military man holding military power who wants to rebel, that is too simple.

Therefore, the path of military generals cannot avoid the cunning rabbit being dead and the hunting dog being cooked.

This is also one of the reasons why the final fates of Zhang Huan, Huangfu Gui, and Duan Jiong were so miserable.

Unless the world is in chaos and it's time to compare whose knife is harder and whose fist is bigger, these talents of the scholar-official families basically won't even look at a military man from the border commanderies like Duan Yu.

This is also something Duan Yu has understood more or less since he traveled through time.

And even if the world is in chaos, it won't be the turn of the border military men when it comes to dividing the cake.

Just look at the warlords at the end of the Han Dynasty.

The strongest warlords from the border commanderies at the end of the Han Dynasty were none other than Gongsun Zan, Ma Teng, and Han Sui.

But look at the people around these border warlords.

Is there any internal affairs talent who can be named, truly like Xun Yu's king-aiding talent?

Even when the world was in chaos and the scholar-official families were choosing sides to invest in, these border warlords were not the first choice.

That's why Duan Yu felt it was hard.

In this regard, Jia Xu, with his hands tucked into his sleeves, also expressed helplessness: "Lord, Liangzhou is vast and sparsely populated; as for military generals, they are naturally not lacking."

"But... as for other talents, the Lord will have to find a way himself."

"The subordinate is also unable to help."

Duan Yu took a deep breath.

Then he got up from his seat.

Can no one help?

"Wenhe," Duan Yu looked at Jia Xu, sweeping away his disappointment, and said spiritedly: "Have you ever heard a sentence?"

"What?" Jia Xu tilted his head and looked at Duan Yu in confusion.

Duan Yu smiled slightly and said:

"No one supports my blue cloud ambition."

"I step on the peak of the snowy mountain myself!"

"If there is no such luck in my life..."

"I can also climb Kunlun alone!"

"I have come all this way..."

"From a hunter in the village to now, although there is an element of luck, who would have thought that a village hunter from half a year ago could now become a Commandery Prefect?"

Jia Xu was stunned.

He was shocked by the overflowing and flamboyant confidence and dominance radiating from Duan Yu at this moment.

All along, Duan Yu had appeared very humble in front of everyone.

These words...