Chapter 6766: The mixed human heart

Chang'an has indeed been a mixed bag recently. Apart from the various family leaders who rushed to Chang'an ahead of schedule because of the Second Five-Year Plan, the major families in Central Asia have also suffered severe disasters. In the spirit of sending some people to Chang'an, they can save some food rations. Therefore, the families that were originally only going to come with a dozen people are now eager to cram thousands of people here. The rice in Chang'an is expensive, but it is better than having no rice to eat in Central Asia!

Taking into account the martial arts performance, which was said to be inside information but was actually eligible to participate, almost all the contestants had received the news from various channels by this time. In order to gather intelligence in advance, scout the opponent, and adapt to the climate of Chang'an, the veterans of Gao Ronglian also gathered one after another.

But to be honest, Chang'an already has a large number of top veterans on duty, so adding a few hundred or a thousand more would not be a problem. However, as the number of top veterans increased, people who came to watch the fun from all directions also began to gather in Chang'an. After all, if they couldn't participate in such a grand event as the Grand Martial Arts Show, it would be good to just watch the fun!

Also, consider that some veterans and spectators bring their friends, nephews, etc. with them when they come. The former come to watch the fun, while the latter learn while watching. After all, even the top veterans cannot guarantee that the talents they have mastered are the best. Not to mention the effects of different talents in different people's hands, even the same talents will be different in the hands of different masters.

As a top-level expert, other people's paths are generally only of reference value to oneself. However, his own nephews and nieces are still young and have considerable plasticity. The talents that he has refined and adjusted and strengthened may not be suitable for his nephews and nieces. They can come here to broaden their horizons and who knows, they may find suitable people to imitate.

As a result, there are now a huge number of foreign population in Chang'an every day. Jingzhao Yin Wang Yi has specially ordered all counties under the jurisdiction of Chang'an to absorb the population and temporarily reside there. Although there are many places for temporary residence in Chang'an, even if all these people are absorbed, the new Chang'an city built by Chen Xi can also accommodate them, but considering that there are all kinds of people from all over the world and they gather in Chang'an for a long time, it is too difficult to manage. Wang Yi thinks it is better to let them all in when the grand martial arts performance really starts. It is better to scatter them in the counties under his jurisdiction now.

However, even so, the recent flow of people in Chang'an City is almost one-fifth higher than normal, and the probability of fights has also increased a lot. There are quarrels and fights between aristocratic families, and there are also local veterans who meet and compete with each other out of excitement, as well as fighting in a fit of rage.

No matter how much all the blame for the crimes was placed on Liu Bei, true enemies would still have red eyes when they met. After all, no matter how amazing Chen Xi was, it took him several years to assist Liu Bei in defeating Yuan Shao, and during this period, there were also many civil wars in the Central Plains.

If we add the fighting between the Yellow Turbans and the regular army, there would be even more people with grudges.

But these were all killings on the battlefield. After Liu Bei took all the blame, most of the soldiers were able to let go of their hatred. Even if the rest did not completely let go of their hatred, they would basically not take the initiative to seek revenge as long as they did not see the other party.

Liu Bei's benevolence and Chen Xi's morality cut off the chain of hatred to a great extent.

At the very least, there are basically no incidents of the lower classes killing each other due to hatred on the battlefield. Of course, on the other hand, the justice of those who start the war has been judged by tens of millions of people.

But to say that there is no hatred at all, how can I say it? It was fine when Liu Bei was present, but when Liu Bei was not present, the two sides were far away and could pretend not to know each other. But when Liu Bei was not present, and the two sides still met, if there were no other veterans around to help, it is possible that they would fight to the death.

Suppose one side has an absolute advantage on the battlefield, and none of his comrades and brothers die in front of him, while he kills a lot of his opponents. Then, after Liu Bei unifies the world, he puts all the blame on his own weakness back then. When the old soldier whose comrades were killed meets the old soldier whose brothers are still alive, this old soldier will just run away because of Liu Bei's benevolence.

Generally speaking, when one's strength reaches this level, it is actually very difficult to catch up with him if he wants to run. Moreover, if you don't take any action and just run, there will definitely be someone who will stop the person chasing you, and the matter will be over.

But there are very few veterans who have such an advantage. Most of them are like this: you killed my brother, and I killed your brother. In this case, when the two sides meet and have a verbal dispute, it is likely that they will settle both the new and old grudges together, and no one will run away.

Fortunately, Liu Bei's presence is very noticeable. Most of the time, these old soldiers have cold faces when they meet, just like Mei Wan seeing Huang Tao. I am just a transparent person. I don't want to communicate, and I don't know how to communicate. Huang Tao also has this attitude towards Mei Wan.

In this way, both sides can coexist. After all, hatred is only a part of life. Even if it is a hatred as great as Gao Yi's, which requires the death of the entire family and the digging up of ancestral graves, after Gao Yi has killed his entire family and ancestors and it is more than enough, he can still think about the problem calmly.

Even more excessively, Chen Baxian killed Wang Sengbian, and Wang Sengbian's son Wang Ban followed Yang Guang to destroy the Chen Dynasty as a vanguard. After the demise of the Southern Chen Dynasty, they opened Chen Baxian's coffin, mutilated his body, burned the body, smashed the bones into powder, and drank it directly with water.

Afterwards, the always radical Wang Ban became very peaceful. As the Duke of Sheqiu County and a frontier official, he no longer acted as cruelly as before. He even implemented a large number of policies to benefit the people and did not expand the purges.

All these show that hatred has its limits. When revenge reaches a certain level, individuals stuck in the mud will gradually regain their sanity.

When Gao Yi's entire family was killed, he really said that he would kill all the people with the surname Cao. But now, to be honest, if he really can't kill Cao, he will just go home and take care of his children.

What opportunity is there? If you really hold your breath like you did back then, what opportunity are you waiting for? Being able to consider opportunities and thinking carefully actually means making a rational assessment.

This is also the reason why the chaos in Chang'an is still under control as a whole. After all, over the years, the officers and soldiers of the Han Dynasty have gradually become more rational in this regard.

"Notify Wesho to find a water conservancy expert, and then organize a team of thirty people and send them over." Chen Xi did not want to send people to Kandahar, but the reality was there, and he had to send people. Some things had to be monitored by people, even if it had to be acted.

Of course it's not to that extent, but all the senior water conservancy experts are busy, so they just send a water conservancy expert from the civilian community who can take a look and can be personally verified by Liu Yan and pass the test.

"Then I have no problem." Liu Ye said expressionlessly after hearing this. He came here to finalize some things. Now that he has a satisfactory answer, Liu Ye is not going to stay in the Government Affairs Office.

When Jing Yuan brought Liu Ye out of the Government Affairs Hall, Cao Chuang had already brought several veterans to the door pretending to patrol. Jing Yuan was an old guard of Weiyang Palace after all, so he recognized where these veterans were from at a glance. He coughed twice and announced to the group the solution for Kandahar.

Several veteran soldiers from Xuzhou had complicated or excited expressions. After all, some of them had prepared themselves mentally for not seeking revenge and living for themselves and their families in the past two years. Cao Cao's Sikong had greatly hindered the idea of revenge among these people. Coupled with the propaganda that had been going on all the time and the veteran soldiers from Xuzhou who had lived to repair their figures in the Weiyang Palace, they had killed more than a dozen Yanzhou soldiers.

The old soldiers who had been tempered six times had piled up their heads, and even though those who were killed later were the elite of the Huns, Kushans, etc., in the early days, many of the soldiers who were currently comrades-in-arms might have been killed by the sword. So until now, some old soldiers in Xuzhou have actually no intention of seeking revenge on Cao, even though their relatives did die in the Xuzhou massacre presided over by Cao.

In other words, after more than ten years, they gradually accepted the reality and gave up the idea of revenge. As a result, Jing Yuan now told these veterans a piece of news that caught them off guard.

"Come with me!" Jiang Tao said with a gloomy face as he looked at Tang Yi standing beside him. Then he bowed to Liu Ye, turned around and left. He looked so murderous that even Liu Ye frowned slightly.

However, when Jiang Tao was about to leave, Tang Yi grabbed Jiang Tao without saying anything, but just held him like that. Then Jiang Tao shook his arms fiercely and left with big strides.

"What about my sister-in-law, nephew and niece?" Tang Yi asked loudly.

Jiang Tao paused for a moment after hearing that, then left with extremely determined steps. He wanted revenge. Over the years, Tang Yi had used countless reasons to persuade him not to go, and he seemed to be convinced, but when this moment came, Jiang Tao found that he did not hesitate at all. I live for revenge.

"Neishi, can you give me a field mission in Central Asia?" Tang Yi watched Jiang Tao, who was walking faster and faster and finally left as if he was shrinking the earth, gritted his teeth and saluted Liu Ye.

"You may not be able to kill Cao Mengde even if you go there. No, to be precise, the probability of success is less than one in a hundred. Even if Cao Mengde is no longer Sikong, someone who knew about this situation earlier should have been prepared long ago. Your military force is enough to kill him when you find Cao Mengde, but the reality is that it is difficult for you to find Cao Mengde." Liu Ye said calmly.

"But at least we can bring Brother Jiang back." Tang Yi sighed and said, "I beg the Internal Affairs Minister to be lenient. Revenge is meaningless now."

Tang Yi was qualified to say this, because he, like Jiang Tao, was from northern Xuzhou, most of his relatives had died, and he had joined Liu Bei's army again out of anger. In the end, as fellow villagers, they both ended up shaping stones in the Weiyang Palace.

It’s just that Tang Yi has reconciled with his past self, while Jiang Tao is still living in that day.

"Many of your family members also died at the hands of Cao Mengde." Liu Ye said indifferently.

"The number of Cao's soldiers who died at my hands is no less than that of my family. Being trapped in the dilemma of revenge will only make me feel more empty." Tang Yi sighed and said, "We should have our own lives instead of living in the shadow of the past."

"Here, this is a long-term mission of about 130 days." Liu Ye flipped through his briefcase, pulled out a tightly sealed small tube, and handed it directly to Tang Yi, "We need five people to carry it out together, but you only need to submit one report."

"Thank you, Nei Shi!" Upon hearing this, Tang Yi took it with both hands and bowed. Then Tang Yi took the few acquaintances next to him and left quickly.

"Hatred, humph!" Liu Ye looked at the people who left and shook his head. "Many of the righteous are butchers. Chen Zichuan, this guy, really sees some things too clearly."

"Brother He, are you really not going?" After Liu Ye left, Cao Chuang asked He Zhen.

"No, Old Tang doesn't even want revenge, let alone me." He Zhen shook his head and said, "Although the saying 'when will revenge end' is a bit exaggerated and easy to say, I still have to say that it does make sense."

In Kandahar, a new day began, and Cao Ang also received a reply from Chen Xi. As he expected, Chen Xi gave a positive answer and agreed to Cao Ang's proposal. In his reply, he stated that he would send a team of professional water conservancy experts to supervise in the near future to ensure that Cao Ang completed the water network reconstruction plan on time and with quality.

"The most important step has been taken." Cao Ang looked at the secret letter that Chen Xi had sent by courier eagle. It was stamped with the imperial seal, the general's seal and Chen Xi's own seal. Of course, it also included a reply to Cao Cao's request for his remains. This reply did not exceed Cao Ang's expectations. Sending a fake body of his father to Congling was just to add weight to the situation.

"Sure enough, it was this plan that really moved Lord Chen." Mao Jie looked at the secret report handed over by Cao Ang and said with some emotion, "Construction and development."

"Normal. As long as the plan is real, Chen Zichuan will accept it even if it takes some time." Chen Qun said calmly. He knew Chen Xi quite well.

"In this way, we have obtained the endorsement, and there will no longer be any legal loopholes for Marquis Wei to control Kandahar." Xun You exhaled and said, "Then what we need to do next is to complete the previous plan, and then this..."

While Xun You was speaking, he handed a complete official document to Cao Ang. This was what Xun Yu asked him to bring. After all, Xun Yu had to calm down after what had happened recently, and the incident with Cao Cao was a huge blow to him, so he really needed to adjust himself.

"This is what my uncle asked me to bring to Marquis Wei. The Marquis Wei can screen and use the strategies in it. As for my uncle, the matter of Sikong has had a huge impact on you. I'm afraid he won't be able to recover this year." Xun You said dully. This time, he had some teasing intention towards his uncle who was younger than him. After so many years, he was really in trouble this time.

"I will go to pay my respects to you after I have dealt with all matters in Kandahar." Cao Ang did not take it as an offense. He was different from Cao Cao. He was still very generous in this respect. Besides, there were too many things going on in Kandahar at the moment, and this was just a small matter. "The most urgent thing is to negotiate with Ardashir to curb the heavy rain, and then we can talk about other things."

"To discuss such an important matter with Ardashir, even if Ardashir himself hopes that the rain will stop, we cannot let a servant go to discuss it. Let's put it this way, I don't have much ability, and I am really interested in Ardashir, so why don't I go." Liu Xian said expressionlessly. He had a good impression of Cao Ang, and after going through so much, he didn't leave, which was enough to show this man's awareness. So after Cao Ang came to power, Liu Xian came over and prepared to take a gamble.

"I'll go with you, sir." Cao Zhen stood up and answered.

"Okay, but do you two know how dangerous this trip is?" Cao Ang said sincerely to Cao Zhen, who came back yesterday and sided with him the first time he learned about the Kandahar coup.

As for Cao Cao's brothers such as Cao Ren and the Xiahou brothers, although they were notified of today's meeting after Cao Ang took office yesterday, and this group of people arrived on time, they have not said a word until now.

"No problem." Liu Xian shook his head and said, "It's just a diplomatic mission. Even if the talks fail, they won't attack. Don't worry. Besides, it will be difficult for Ardashir to refuse under the current circumstances."

"We only talk about changing the situation, not ceasefire." Cao Ang's eyes swept over Cao Ren and others, then fell on Cao Zhen, and he spoke with a serious expression.

"Next, what we need to do is to stabilize people's hearts." Seeing Liu Xian and Cao Zhen nod slowly, Cao Ang felt relieved. Then he looked at everyone present and spoke with a serious expression.

Cao Ren raised his eyebrows slightly but said nothing. Cao Cao handed the crown to Cao Ang, so he had nothing to say. What's more, Chang'an also approved the inheritance of power.

Although Cao Sikong became Cao Pingxi, the Cao family still had the power to control Kandahar and to fight wars and build a fiefdom. However, it was questionable how much of the strength of his officers and soldiers could be mobilized with such power in the current precarious situation.

There was a problem at the root of the Cao family. This could be seen from the resistance of officers and soldiers when they were forced to march in the rain, as well as Cao Hong leading his personal guards to organize the battle line. To be honest, there was a sense that the situation was difficult to reverse.

Therefore, it is very important to stabilize people's hearts. Only when people's hearts are stabilized can Cao's combat effectiveness be exerted. If the turmoil continues, it will be a question whether Cao's 100% strength can be exerted at 50% in the attack.

There is no need to worry about defense. After all, the middle and lower-level officers are not fools. If they don't fight hard when defending, once they are defeated, the scattered soldiers will die when facing the main army. Therefore, as long as they hold their ground, the soldiers of Cao's army can be completely trusted.

This kind of defeat is either due to the gap in hard power or the gap in tactical command. The soldiers themselves, on the other hand, should do their best and fight to the death when it is time to do so, because if they don't fight to the death when defending, they will be dispersed and collapsed, and there is no need to fight to the death anymore.

There may be no point in holding on. Only by winning the war can you expand. Just being able to hold on has no meaning at all in this era of expansion.

The problem is that Cao's middle and lower-level officers have begun to doubt Cao itself. Attacking may not necessarily bring benefits to these people, and they may even die. What's the point of talking about it?

I went to get my computer repaired on Monday. I'm using my home computer now, but it's not working well. It's a headache. I'll get it fixed later.