Chapter 7032 Not on the Weighing

Chapter 7032 Not on the Weighing

“Many things can’t withstand a commotion. If someone starts a commotion, others will definitely follow suit. After all, it’s impossible to achieve so-called fairness in this kind of thing.” Sun Qian said with a hint of sarcasm. “Those people on the Ganges front say they’re losing out by sealing them off like this. What do the people in the rear think? Don’t they feel like they’re losing out too?”

"I'd agree! Who doesn't risk their life for this?" Sun Qian said sarcastically. "It's just that some people are content, and some are greedy. But with such immense wealth, who can say they can resist? The rumors from the Ganges reach my construction site, and the guys at the top who are working hard are still working. On the contrary, those guys who are neither the best nor the worst are constantly spreading lies. Why do you think they're doing this?"

Chen Xi remained expressionless upon hearing this. Initially, there were no such issues. The fiefdoms were issued as usual, and the discharge certificates were signed as usual. In the end, the fiefdoms were distributed in one go, and whoever got them was the one who got them. Even if someone wanted to say something strange, the deed was done and could not be changed. These were all men who had been through life and death on the battlefield. Would they really give the treasures that had fallen into their hands to those who were talking nonsense?
But since this matter has been brought to light, there will naturally be those who are restless. And it's not just those on the front lines who are restless; there are also those in the rear. Everyone wants the best, so how to distribute it reasonably is what Chen Xi needs to consider most.

"What are your thoughts?" Chen Xi asked with a hint of curiosity.

“I have no ideas.” Sun Qian said with a hint of coldness. “I don’t care about those things. I have no descendants, only one daughter. Once she gets married, it’s over. I just need to do my own thing. And to be honest, I can understand everyone who gets involved in this matter, but I don’t care about any of them. That’s my current situation.”

"That's great." Chen Xi said with a hint of regret, "I still have to keep pursuing this matter. In the end, I need to give a result no matter what. To be honest, the Indus-Ganges River Basin definitely needs a result, and there needs to be an arrangement no matter what."

“If there’s really no plan, we might as well let the Kushans surrender, then cut them in half vertically to satisfy those marquises. The others can be assigned to official positions in the country according to their rank or after retirement, or be enfeoffed in the Indochina Peninsula. That way, the gap won’t have widened to what it is now.” Sun Qian said with a sneer. Chen Xi was stunned for a moment, then looked at Sun Qian very seriously.

"What's wrong?" Sun Qian looked at Chen Xi, somewhat puzzled as to why Chen Xi had such a look in her eyes, and also why there was a hint of seriousness on Chen Xi's face.

"Where did you get this idea from?" Chen Xi asked Sun Qian with a somewhat heavy expression.

"Is there a big problem here?" Sun Qian frowned, somewhat puzzled, and stared at Chen Xi as he transmitted his voice.

"The problems are enough to bury you." Chen Xi sighed, her tone extremely heavy. "It's only because you're communicating with me here through telepathy in a completely nonsensical way, and you've already stated your position of standing by and watching, and you've always had this idea, that I think this idea is just a passing fancy."

"Huh?" Sun Qian was stunned, then looked at Chen Xi with his brows furrowed. He didn't think there was anything too serious wrong with what he had said.

"The problem with what you said is actually the same as the question Zijing asked me when we were directly arguing in the Executive Yuan. The only difference is that Zijing slammed his words on the table right in front of us, leaving neither of us with any way to back down and forcing us to deal with it." Chen Xi said with a hint of regret.

Sun Qian's words were exactly the same in nature as Lu Su's previous incident of slamming the table in the government compound; both were matters of policy. However, the difference was that Sun Qian was discussing this privately with Chen Xi. Therefore, Chen Xi was certain that Sun Qian was unaware of the problem and proceeded with leniency, carefully explaining the situation to him.

"Is it that exaggerated? What did I say? Should we make the Kushans surrender? Is that the question?" Sun Qian was still recalling what he had blurted out earlier. After thinking about it carefully for a while, he realized that there seemed to be no problem. He immediately frowned and looked at Chen Xi. What's going on? Is there a problem with what he said?
Sun Qian's politics weren't too sensitive. After all, he spent most of his time working on the front lines, building roads, and rarely engaged in political maneuvering. He didn't even realize that he had already stepped into a minefield. The fact that he was unharmed was purely because of his high status, deep background, and the fact that this happened in private, without being weighed down.

If this really gets brought up at the Grand Court Assembly, it will be an even bigger problem than the Situ case.

“That’s not right. The veterans of Kushan can participate in the competition and even get a top-five ranking, all while fighting under the banner of Her Highness the Princess. That means there’s already this inclination. You can’t possibly kill all the Kushans, so it’s inevitable that you’ll admit that the veterans of the Yuezhi are descendants of the Five Marquises.” Sun Qian asked with some oddness. He still didn’t realize that what he said had stepped on a landmine.

"What you said is actually correct." Chen Xi didn't hide anything and realized that Sun Qian's focus was very different from her own. However, as long as he didn't have bad intentions, it was fine. Before doing something, it's much easier to discuss it with your teammates.

Just like now, Sun Qian's words are extremely problematic, but Chen Xi can still cheerfully explain to Sun Qian and keep rambling on about why, without taking it to heart at all.

"Then what was wrong with what I said earlier?" Sun Qian asked Chen Xi, frowning.

“There’s a big problem with the idea of ​​getting the Kushans to surrender and then cutting them up and distributing them among the marquises,” Chen Xi said very seriously. “If you were to propose this at a grand court assembly, the number of people who die would be several times greater than what happened with Zijing.”

Sun Qian gasped upon hearing this. What's going on? No, Zichuan, what do you mean by that?

“The reason Ganges can continue fighting is because of the Grand Commandant and I pushing them forward, and of course, our officers and soldiers are also actively preparing for war. Even though they have many messy ideas, they are absolutely serious about conquering Kushan.” Chen Xi looked at Sun Qian with a serious expression. “In other words, no matter how chaotic Ganges Group’s thinking is, it doesn’t change the fact that they really want to conquer Kushan. So, they only need to lose one battle to wake them up.”

Sun Qian nodded slowly upon hearing this. He believed what he said. After all, no one was a fool. Only by winning could there be a future. Only by destroying Kushan could they take over the elite region. If they couldn't win, then everything would be in vain. So no matter how chaotic the Ganges Group was or how great the internal turmoil was, as long as they lost one battle, they would recover quickly.

This isn't some deeply ingrained problem; it's simply that someone's brain is flawed. They wanted to take more than their share, only to find that sabotaging others would lead to their own demise, and they wouldn't get anything in return. So, the choice is obvious. This is also why Chen Xi was so calm about the battle before the final showdown.

So what if we lose? Let's make it hurt, let them learn a lesson. Even a broken ship has three thousand nails, let alone the Kushan ship which isn't even broken yet!

"Then guess which forces want us to continue this dragging on?" Chen Xi asked Sun Qian with a hint of disappointment. "Which forces want the Ganges Legion to be defeated, thus prolonging the war and even allowing the Kushan Empire to survive?"

Sun Qian swallowed hard. He suddenly realized how big of a problem it would be if he actually made this formal proposal. Not to mention offending a large number of the existing middle and lower-level employees of the Henghe Group. Well, Sun Qian didn't care about that. His power was enough to suppress these people. Even if he actually did it, these people wouldn't dare to scold Sun Qian. At most, they would just mutter a few words in their hearts.

But if Sun Qian really did what he did, after the Kushan Empire surrendered, it should still have half or even two-thirds of its original size. So who would end up with these places?

As mentioned earlier, the Battle of the Ganges was essentially a war that Liu Bei and Chen Xi pushed to secure greater benefits for Liu Bei's forces. Other forces also benefited, but compared to the meager gains Liu Bei had made, they were insignificant.

Therefore, if Sun Qian proposes this at the court meeting, a group of powerful families will launch a counterattack on this issue. Moreover, the reason is very clear: it's not that they don't want to grant fiefs to marquises, but rather that they don't want to grant fiefs to the middle and lower classes. Besides, the enfeoffment system has always been something that only marquises within the pass and above can have. If you haven't reached that level, what are you?

At that time, regardless of ancestral laws or anything else in history, the major families will have plenty of ways to argue with Chen Xi on matters of clan law.

At worst, they could get others to teach Chen Xi a lesson.

And most importantly, why should ordinary soldiers with ranks of ten or higher receive the Ganges Prime Region? If it were truly a matter of granting fiefdoms, wouldn't the Indochina Peninsula, the Liaodong Peninsula, or the crevice of Central Asia be better? Why should they receive better rewards when their historical contributions are not as great as those of so-and-so?
There are too many reasons to give, but the reason why they can't be named is simply because Liu Bei and Chen Xi are there. However, when Sun Qian, an unassuming but undeniably top-tier figure, steps forward to raise his objections, countless others will follow suit.

After all, this is good news. It's not like they're stopping Liu Bei from bestowing titles upon his superiors. Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, and others could still get those places. What they're stopping is that such a beautiful land has fallen into the hands of ordinary people!
At that time, whether Chen Xi deals with Sun Qian or not will be a big problem. Moreover, with someone like Sun Qian emerging, even if Chen Xi deals with Sun Qian, there will be countless successors who can "inherit" Sun Qian's beliefs and help the Kushan Empire with the benevolent belief of survival and continuity, so that they can live a little longer. As for whether Sun Qian will be nailed to the annals of history after doing so, what does it have to do with them!
"I see." Listening to Chen Xi's simple explanation and feeling the clash of swords, Sun Qian felt a surge of anger. He began to wonder who he had been talking to and had given rise to this idea.

"Don't overthink it. It's perfectly normal for them to have designs on you. They have designs on me too," Chen Xi said calmly. "They just can't beat me, but they firmly believe they can outlive me. If this generation can't survive, there's always the next generation. When you're strong, they'll be subservient. But when you weaken, they'll naturally jump out and continue to fight you. To be honest, that's the weakness of the reformists."

"Can't solve it?" Sun Qian said wearily. He already knew how he came to have this idea, and he knew who he was talking to and how it formed this concept, but what could he do even if he knew? The words weren't spoken by the other person; he thought of them himself, so he couldn't blame anyone else.

“It can’t be solved. After all, no matter how much we promote education, our teachers are still the same people as before, or rather, they learned from the same people as before. Their thoughts and understanding will be passed down through education. To solve this kind of thing…” Chen Xi sighed, “First, we need someone who has thoroughly read the ancient books and has entered the Dao and then broken through it. Then, we need to completely control education and propaganda, and gradually and repeatedly cleanse it. Otherwise, even if we can win for a while, it will be meaningless.”

"You must have been influenced by some people, right?" Chen Xi felt that talking about education and propaganda was meaningless, so after thinking for a moment, she changed the subject and asked.

"It should be, but I can't quite put my finger on the feeling," Sun Qian said with a hint of complexity in his voice.

"Making others act according to your own intentions, giving your own answer first, and then persuading others to accept your viewpoint is not a good solution. A high-level approach is to do enough preparatory work, then pose questions, and finally let others follow these lines of thought to come up with the answer they want." Chen Xi looked at Sun Qian as if explaining, but also as if asking a question.

“Just like you said,” Sun Qian said bitterly, “it’s even more serious than that. If so-called thinking is trapped in past knowledge from the very beginning, then it can be driven forward simply by following past lines of thought. The construction of the Confucian moral system, ah, it really is…”

"So the right to education is very important, but we can't just snatch it away. And as long as we can't just snatch it away, no matter how we take over, we'll leave behind things from the past. That's what they mean by endless poisoning." Chen Xi said calmly. He even guessed who had told Sun Qian this, and he could guess how the other party had induced him. The guys from the previous era weren't all useless; they were just trapped in the circle of interests and couldn't extricate themselves.

"I made the same mistake as Zijing, right?" Sun Qian asked Chen Xi after realizing what he had done wrong.

“While that’s true in terms of the route, there’s a big difference between you two. At least you know what issues are currently in conflict and ask them privately, but Zijing…” Chen Xi said with some weariness, “Zijing’s greatest strength is that he came up with the conviction of self-destruction.”

The biggest problem with Lu Su's incident at the Political Academy was that he was put on the scale. To be honest, if he hadn't been put on the scale, and it had just been asked of Chen Xi in private, it wouldn't have even amounted to a penalty. Not to mention that Chen Xi had already left Lu Su a way out. Even if there wasn't a way out, if he asked in private, would Chen Xi not have answered?
However, what enraged Chen Xi about Lu Su was that Lu Su himself had gone to extremes, throwing the matter directly onto the scales, so what was there to say!

“I see.” Sun Qian nodded. “Then I won’t bring this up again, but I still want to say it again: I personally don’t approve of what the Henghe Group is doing now, and the Road Logistics Planning and Construction Group that I represent maintains a neutral stance on this matter.”

"You can completely suppress those people?" Chen Xi asked with some surprise.

"There are only a handful of titles above the ninth rank, less than two hundred in total. I directly guaranteed them all the titles. I told them that if they wanted to be enfeoffed in the Indochina Peninsula, they should choose a location in advance, and I would help them build the road when I passed by, as a gift for their hard work over the years." Sun Qian said casually. He could make the decision on this matter. Although it was using the country's money and it wasn't really a national matter, he could still make the decision directly without any problem.

"It sounds ordinary, but upon closer inspection, it is indeed a great gift." Chen Xi nodded. Sun Qian was spending some of the country's money to do this, just as Sun Qian had thought, so Chen Xi didn't mind.

“The resentment has lessened considerably,” Sun Qian said calmly. “After all, we were all involved in the road construction, and we know what a road out of the village means to the people.”

"A level nine village road, a level twelve two-lane road? A level fifteen four-lane road?" Chen Xi said with a smile.

"Bullshit, these are just village roads. Why would we build them four-lane roads? What kind of princely treatment is this?" Sun Qian said unhappily. He was a professional at this. You know, this is the Indochina Peninsula. The village roads are already pretty good. And even this was only promised after Zhao Shuang and Guo Kai were tested and the consumption wasn't too outrageous. Four-lane roads? You're dreaming!

"I see. Well, to be honest, it's quite good. Are you satisfied with the high-ranking officials under your command?" Chen Xi asked, sounding somewhat knowledgeable about the situation.

"I'm quite satisfied, at least some of the high-ranking officials who came back from the front lines, when they heard me say that they were helping with road repairs, didn't complain about the front lines with lamentation and resentment, but rather with a kind of speechless disbelief that idiots are everywhere," Sun Qian said with a hint of reminiscence.

Having a road makes a big difference. There is a main road leading out of the village, and that is what Sun Qian promised. Those veterans who came back to collect ashes, represented by Anling, felt much better. After all, even without the Ganges, having the Indochina Peninsula is not a loss. Moreover, having a road makes it convenient to get in and out. Besides, Indochina is closer than the Ganges. So, this comparison has its advantages.

"I see." Chen Xi nodded. He could understand it. Those who returned to the mainland and went to Sun Qian's side at this time were the real backbone, the elites who truly supported the country and hoped for its improvement. Conversely, these people were also more down-to-earth.

Just as Sun Qian said before, the idea of ​​a fiefdom is already an overstepping of authority for someone below the rank of Marquis within the Pass!

A friend in the group has a new book, it's still in the Three Kingdoms genre, you can check it out if you're interested. Okay, that's all.