Chapter 7031 Human Hearts Have Flaws

Chapter 7031 Human Hearts Have Flaws
“I will continue to work on road construction in the southwest, just like in previous years, except for the Chinese New Year when I come back every year.” After thinking for a moment, Sun Qian told Chen Xi his thoughts. He really didn’t want to get entangled in internal disputes. On the one hand, he couldn’t outsmart these people, and on the other hand, the overall scale of road, logistics and transportation was simply too large.

"What news have you heard this time?" Chen Xi asked with some curiosity.

Sun Qian's information channels were actually quite comprehensive. Although there might be some delays, the engineering corps from all over the country would bring him all sorts of information. Moreover, some rumors could be found with just a little research. So as long as Sun Qian stayed at the front, he couldn't completely avoid a lot of intelligence, even if he didn't want to know it.

"It's not a matter of rumors, but I've heard some bad news from some veterans, and they probably know more about it than you do," Sun Qian said with a hint of helplessness. He didn't really want to know these things, but the veterans who came back from the Ganges would complain from time to time about how the front lines were full of infighting and that it was better to come back and do something like kicking dust.

In addition, Sun Qian often had to go to the front line for on-site investigations, and sometimes he had to keep an eye on things. Sometimes, after a day, he would be covered in dirt and grime. So even if the returning veterans knew that it was Sun Qian, they would find it hard to keep their distance from him when they saw him wearing the same rattan armor hat as them and looking so dirty.

Without the feeling of keeping a respectful distance from important figures, certain things that couldn't be said normally would naturally slip out. After all, compared to Chen Xi's situation where others had time to give Chen Xi some extras when he wasn't in a surprise attack, Sun Qian's situation didn't have that problem at all.

Those people didn't hold back when they complained about Sun Qian. After all, even if they knew at first that Sun Qian was a high-ranking official with a salary of 2,000 shi (a unit of grain), a pillar of the state, and supposedly in charge of the national road and transportation project, after seeing him wandering around the construction site like a stray dog ​​every day, once that high and mighty filter collapsed, they saw Sun Qian as no different from a normal person.

After all, being far away and having less exposure leads to those biased views. If you see someone every day and they eat, drink, and relieve themselves just like you, it would be a miracle if you still felt awe.

Most of the time, so-called awe is just a filter and distance. As long as you can't go deep into the lives of ordinary people for a long time, and the people can hear your story in those seemingly high-level things, over time, they will naturally realize that you are not an ordinary person, and the so-called beauty of distance will naturally emerge!

But if you're like a stray dog, hanging out with ordinary people all the time, no matter how high your background or how extraordinary your origins, the most basic human connection will make them see you as one of their own. After all, we all have two shoulders and a head, so the similarities are obvious. People aren't blind, and you'll naturally become familiar with each other after hanging out for a while.

So, while you could say that Sun Qian's intelligence was delayed, its accuracy and perspective were extremely high, and it completely stood on the side of the majority of the people.

"What do you think?" Chen Xi glanced at his own team, which was already surrounded and attacked. Knowing that the Grand Martial Arts Competition would end soon, he turned his head and asked Sun Qian telepathically.

“As for my opinion, to be honest, I’ve heard this far too many times from my subordinates, and you probably have too. But I only want to say one thing: those who are talking the most are actually a minority. They are just using the loudest voices and trying every means to get their voices heard here. To put it bluntly, they just want to distribute according to who makes the most noise.” Sun Qian said calmly. “I am a Confucian scholar, a student of Kang Cheng Gong, but I just didn’t study it well.”

Poor academic performance does not equate to poor morality. Han Confucian scholars did not frantically exaggerate their own morality; on the contrary, many Confucian scholars had a remarkably high level of morality. Sometimes, the credibility brought by an individual's morality can surpass the rules repeatedly followed by others, especially when the individual is at a very high level. In such cases, many things that were originally extremely difficult can be easily resolved.

After all, someone of Sun Qian's caliber is truly qualified to use his own understanding of morality as a rule, especially when his morality is indeed quite high.

“The spiral of silence, is it?” Chen Xi sighed. He knew this, but he couldn’t grasp the degree of this. Because Chen Xi was now too far removed from his soldiers. There were very few people left who could stand up straight in front of him and speak frankly about certain things.

To put it bluntly, people like Sun Qian and Zhou Yu are no longer acceptable; I would directly call Chen Xi a bastard. They're practically extinct now. They're too dignified!
What's even more disheartening is that this sense of propriety is the result of Chen Xi's constant advocacy, and those people genuinely agree with it and incorporate it into their lives.

Damn it, the problem is that some things just can't be done decently.

Just like the manager Yuan Shu and Liu Zhang encountered back then, who ran two shops. One recruited people, and the other organized the workforce to repair roads. The former would negotiate the wages and benefits and tell the other party that they would be paid annually and that food, drink and accommodation would be provided. So it was not a problem to recruit people. After joining the road repair team, food, drink and accommodation were indeed provided. But after the road was completed, the latter did not pay the workers and told them to go back to the former recruiting company!

Damn, is this a problem for working people to get paid?

So when Yuan Shu and Liu Zhang found out, they didn't bother with any decorum. They hanged the manager they had hired in front of all the workers, regardless of whether they knew about it or not, and then paid them off one by one.

Decent my foot! Do what you're supposed to do!
Chen Xi is currently far away and can't really control the situation. He's not sure how much trouble those people have caused. He can only rely on his own information channels to find out. But these channels are made up of people, so it's hard to say whether they will tell the truth, add layers of embellishment, or cover things up. Therefore, Chen Xi can guarantee that the information he has about the Ganges River is absolutely inaccurate, and even the information Lu Su had back then was inaccurate.

After giving Sun Qian a general explanation of what the Spiral of Silence was, Chen Xi asked with some curiosity, "Since you can receive more accurate intelligence, and considering the time since Zijing went to the Ganges, even with the lag in information, you should have a pretty good understanding of the situation. What are your thoughts on this? Can you share your suggestions?"

“I don’t want to get involved in this,” Sun Qian replied after a moment of silence. He didn’t want to get involved in this matter at all. All he wanted to do now was quietly continue building the road until he died, when he could have someone prepare a dragon horse to carry him around the road he had built over the years.

As for the power struggles at the top and middle levels, Sun Qian had no interest in them whatsoever. In his words, "You guys fight it out, I'm too lazy to even watch. Isn't it better to just build roads?"
"It won't affect you. I just wanted to hear your opinion." Chen Xi clicked his tongue twice. He actually understood Sun Qian's thoughts. After all, unlike the other elders, Sun Qian had already entered the temple. Although Sun Qian always refused this kind of thing, many locals in the deep mountains and forests of the southwest actually built temples for Sun Qian after the roads were built.

Sun Qian couldn't refuse this thing even if he wanted to. He said he didn't need it, but that doesn't mean those ancient Han people who just came out of the forest should worship Sun Qian in their own way. If they don't want to build a temple, they don't want to build a temple. They can just put up a sign at home and worship. What's wrong with that?

Sun Qian said he was also very frustrated, but he couldn't say it so directly. It's like a cookie bowing twice in its own temple. It's embarrassing, but can you say you don't feel a sense of accomplishment?

Absolutely. The kind of people who were brought out of the mountains, who lived in poverty, and who had customs like walking marriage, naturally disappeared with the progress of society. All these influences gave Sun Qian his own special side among the twelve elders. It was a divine side—you fight it out, whatever, if it doesn't work out, forget it, I still have a lot of people to save!
Humans, as beings, can feel a certain morality and excitement when it comes to saving others, especially when they actually save someone and rescue them from suffering. The immense sense of satisfaction they experience can truly cleanse their souls.

So Sun Qian didn't want to get involved in these things at all. Anyway, there were plenty of people in this world who needed to be saved. Once this bunch of idiots were gone, he would save those he could save first. As for the rest of the group, others would take care of them.

Therefore, when Chen Xi asked, Sun Qian showed some resistance, saying that he really didn't want to get involved in this matter and just wanted to do his job well.

"I'm just offering suggestions; you can do whatever you want." Sun Qian pondered for a moment, his expression somewhat serious, before transmitting his voice to Chen Xi.

“Okay, I’d like to hear your suggestion. After all, among these people, only you and Xianhe can remain neutral on this matter,” Chen Xi replied calmly.

“Not really. Forget it, I’ll just be blunt. Since they think they can be replaced, then let’s replace them all.” Sun Qian said simply. “You’re complicating a simple issue. Rotation is something that’s been happening all along. Why do they refuse rotation? They want the fiefdom of Ganges, and others want it too, right?”

“It’s not impossible to replace them directly, but we have to consider their thoughts, otherwise it will cause great turmoil,” Chen Xi sighed and said. Sun Qian’s suggestion was too crude.

“Extreme upheaval?” Sun Qian sighed. “What do you mean by extreme upheaval? There are only two hundred thousand people on the front lines. What difference would it make if we replaced them all? To put it bluntly, less than one in a hundred of the veterans who have been with Ganges since Yuanfeng’s time are still here. In essence, they have all been replaced in these years. The people who are still in Ganges now are just lucky to be here. If we’re talking about fairness, do they even deserve it?”

“To put it bluntly, many of the veterans under my command served in the Ganges for five or six years, and some even received a seventh or eighth rank of nobility before returning home. Now, they are working for me. But at this point, the veterans in the Ganges who were at the seventh or eighth rank are waiting for their final rewards. Is this fair to the veterans from before?” Sun Qian asked with a hint of disdain.

"Of course, I won't go into the matter of rewards. The Kushan heartland of the Indus-Ganges region is indeed far superior to other places. Every piece of land is a fertile land comparable to our Han Dynasty's grain-producing areas, and it is indeed worth fighting for. But from my perspective, do they even deserve it?" Sun Qian said with a sneer. Fighting for territory? Do you even deserve it? Do your ranks and titles qualify you to talk about this?
“You’re being a bit extreme,” Chen Xi said with a dry laugh. He had heard others say the same thing before, but it went against the ideas of the Henghe Group, so few people were so direct. But Sun Qian didn’t care. In terms of size, the Henghe Group was nowhere near as big as Sun Qian.

Over the past ten years, Sun Qian helped resettle most of the veterans of the Henghe Group who returned to their hometowns. You say you're part of the Henghe Group? Sun Qian even said he was part of the Henghe Group. If we're talking about lineage, dedication, and achievements, the elite Henghe Group under Sun Qian's command has no less combat merit than the current frontline troops. So Sun Qian has always treated this as a joke.

What's wrong? When you replaced these people back then, you thought it was perfectly natural. Now that someone else is replacing you, you feel like you're being coerced. What a joke! The country has its own system. Why do you insist on calling it coercion? Why do you insist that because you didn't get to enjoy the fruits of this labor, the country is targeting you? How shameless do you have?!
Surely no one really thinks that the vast, prime area west of Varanasi, in the middle and upper reaches of the Indus-Ganges, should be granted to the soldiers of Liu Bei's group currently on the front lines? Give me a break. It's as if only you veterans on the front lines have actually fought. What about Yuan Feng three years ago? Five years ago? Seven years ago?
With so many people and so many choices, why does it have to be you?
Even if we consider the number of sacrifices, the soldiers who shed their blood for this land are not just the current group. Why should you reap the rewards? If we don't care about such things, Liu Bei would have distributed the spoils according to the ranks of his subordinates, which would have been fine. It has nothing to do with ordinary veterans!

“It’s not about being extreme, but about realizing that you’re thinking too optimistically,” Sun Qian said with a sigh. “Actually, you shouldn’t have even considered this. Instead, you should have followed the Grand Commandant’s idea and made arrangements for the Indochina Peninsula when Sun Ce started to distribute fiefs. You could even have arranged for Yuan Gonglu and Liu Jiyu to help build roads there.”

"To be fair, the fiefdom decree was issued around that time, but not many people went there voluntarily," Chen Xi sighed. He did know that it was wrong to grant fiefdoms to the middle and upper reaches of the Indus-Ganges River, even if it was because of the distance.

“Yes, the fiefdom decree was issued around that time, but very few people went there because the Central Plains were so well-developed that there were enough places to accommodate these people,” Sun Qian sighed. “For high-ranking nobles, such as marquises, the advantages of being enfeoffed in places like the Indochina Peninsula, Southeast Asia, and Central Asia are greater than serving as officials in the homeland. But for those below that level…”

Just like how, for ordinary people today, would they rather have hundreds of millions in savings in China, earn tens of thousands of yuan a month, and enjoy the country's resources and welfare while living a carefree life, or would they rather risk their lives to explore overseas? For the vast majority of ordinary people, the choice would be the former.

Even if the upper limit is higher, ordinary people would never choose it because they couldn't afford it.

To make a simple analogy, would the lower-ranking veterans under Sun Ce, Yuan Tan, and Cao Ang prefer to fight abroad and acquire a small fiefdom, or would they prefer to return to the Central Plains to become county magistrates, where they could eat and drink their fill and live a peaceful and prosperous life?

The fact that the veterans who ran away from Cao Ang's command stayed in the country if they could get an official position, and only went to Sun Ce's side if they couldn't, is enough to explain the situation.

It's obvious that people are driven by self-interest and avoid harm. Some people want to be granted fiefdoms, but most of the veterans with mid-level titles have already made it very clear that their sons want to go out, but they don't want to go out. If their sons want to establish a country, then when I get old, they can take the fiefdom and go out to have fun. What they achieve is their own business. If they don't achieve anything, don't come looking for their father.

Many veterans have this attitude: they're granted land, but they won't even go to their hometowns. They want to stay there and become wealthy, letting the locals know that they've made something of themselves.

This is also why Liu Bei's veteran soldiers were unwilling to accept fiefdoms in the early days. Even though there were many good places in the Indochina Peninsula and Liaodong Peninsula, no one went to establish fiefdoms. Isn't it good to stay in the homeland? There's food, drink, and entertainment. Going to those places and spending time developing them is something only big shots with long-term vision can do. I'm just a commoner, I can't do it!

The real critical problem was the enfeoffment of the Ganges River region. The enfeoffment of the Ganges River region was a perfect combination of the advantages of the veterans who lived in China under Liu Bei's command and the enfeoffment of veterans.

In other words, you don't have to endure any of the hardships that come with building a fiefdom, and you can enjoy almost everything you would have in China on the Ganges.

It can be said that Chen Xi and Liu Bei wanted to give their followers the best possible experience while taking into account everything they already had, but in the end, it was too good for them and caused a major problem.

Human imagination has its limits. Although Chen Xi speculated that Xun Shuang might have been able to estimate it, there are very few people in this world with Xun Shuang's level. In other words, in fact, absolutely no one could have predicted it. So in the end, this thing that exceeded everyone's expectations was created, which ruined everything that had been built up before.

I mailed it, but this morning I suddenly remembered I needed to revise a few sentences, so I did.