"Does Jia Wenhe know about this?"

Since Jia Xu defected to Dong Zhuo, he quickly gained Dong Zhuo's appreciation, Dong Zhuo took a fancy to his thorough analysis of the general trend of the world and people's speculation, and in some places, he was obviously higher than Li Ru.

Li Ru, who lowered his head slightly, moved his eyelids when he heard this, and replied lightly:

"Ming Gong, Jia Wenhe was previously lobbying Huangfu Song to enter the court, and he has been promoted to the captain of Pingjin, and went to Xiaopingjin Pass to guard against Yuan Shao, Wang Kuang and other rebels, and he is not in Luoyang at present, so he naturally does not know about it."

After returning from Chang'an, after some consideration, Yan Xing finally did not relay the world policy that Jia Xu told him to Li Ru in person, but asked Jia Xu to face his temptation, although he saw that it was Li Ru's instructions, but he smiled and refused to say anything.

This gave Li Ru a wrong judgment, thinking that Jia Xu also faintly regarded him as a fierce rival in competition, so Li Ru did not hesitate to recommend Jia Xu in the selection of people to defend Hejin and Gongwei to the north of Luoyang.

Although Dong Zhuo said that Yuan Shao was the son of the Yuan family, and greatly underestimated his ability to use troops, he was also jealous of Yuan Shao's ability to attract people's hearts and the prestige of the Yuan family, and was worried that Li Dao and other third lieutenants were really not the opponents of the Yuan family, so he agreed to Li Ru's suggestion and sent Jia Xu to Xiaopingjin Pass to consolidate the defense line north of Luoyang.

Now that Li Ru reminded him again, Dong Zhuo knew in his heart that the defense line of the big river north of Luoyang was very important, so he didn't say anything more, and asked instead:

"In Wenyou's opinion, should you fight Yanzhou or Yuzhou first?"

On the way here, Li Ru had already thought carefully about this controversy, and he immediately said in his chest:

"Confucianism thinks that for the sake of the overall situation, neither Yanzhou nor Yuzhou should be attacked! Instead, it should be a truce and appease the rebellious states and counties in the Kanto region! ”

Hearing Li Ru's words, Dong Zhuo's eyes suddenly burst into essence, he stared at Li Ru closely, and asked coldly:

"The rotten Confucianism and vertical son in Kanto are self-defeating, and there is no one in their eyes. By my kindness, and rebelled against me, I can't wait to eat their flesh and drink their blood, and now it is the front line of good news, why should I truce to appease them? ”

Feeling the coldness in Dong Zhuo's tone, Li Ru knew that this was a precursor to his imminent anger, but Li Ru still said calmly:

"Ming Gong, the imperial court moved westward, the accompanying ministers and ministers' salaries and provisions, plus the Xijing palace was in disrepair, Wang Situ built a palace in Chang'an, built a large number of buildings, and resettled the millions of people in Luoyang who obeyed the orders of the Ming Duke and moved into Guanzhong one after another, and the money that the imperial court needs to spend at the moment is tens of billions."

"In addition, our army is stationed near Gyeonggi, in Luoyang Baguan, in Chenggao, Xingyang line to confront the Kwantung Prefecture, the daily consumption of the army of soldiers and horses, the grain and grass, in thousands of stones, and Hu Zhen, Yang Ding and others tens of thousands of Liangzhou soldiers and horses, thousands of miles of like, must be rewarded to strengthen their spirits, Sanfu's soldiers and horses were originally the old department of Huangfu Song, and the new return has not been long, so I have to give more wealth and goods to knot his heart."

"Since the second emperor of Huan Ling, the imperial court has been plagued by natural disasters and military disasters, the wind of extravagance and greed for ink is prevalent, the money is private, the treasury is empty, and now the Cao Yun for Luoyang has been cut off by the rebellious Kwantung Prefecture, the imperial court's finances are beyond their means, and the army has a lot of food and grass. Ming Gong, this battle will continue to be fought, but I am afraid that the ringworm has not been removed, and the henchman has been injured! ”

"Bang!"

Dong Zhuo, who was originally in good spirits, changed his face after listening to Li Ru's words, stretched out his palm, and hit the desk hard, making a loud noise.

"These are the corrupt views of the court, the front line has won frequently, the army has won a lot, just attack the rebellious states and counties, our army can eat the enemy. As for the emptiness of the imperial treasury, haven't I already asked Si Li's lieutenant Liu Huan and Zhonglang general Lu Bu to lead officials and soldiers to raise military funds? ”

Faced with Dong Zhuo's sudden change of face, Li Ru was silent for a while.

Indeed, as the prime minister Dong Zhuo who was in charge of the court, in the face of the original ruined court, he also tried all the means he could think of to remedy it.

What should I do if the state has no money? The former Son of Heaven Liu Hong can use the hands of eunuchs or even go down in person to sell officials in the West Garden, and then whether you want to buy an official or not, as long as you want to be an official, you have to give money, and use this method of selling officials and forcing donations to barely support the Son of Heaven's daily extravagant expenses and emergency expenses in wartime.

But Dong Zhuo entered Luoyang in the name of the Qing monarch and the eunuch, and in order to win over the scholars, he favored many celebrities and people in high positions, and Dong Zhuo, the old method of selling officials in the West Garden, was no longer usable, so he had to let Liu Huan, the captain of the school, and Lu Bu, the lieutenant of Zhonglang, each lead the officials and soldiers to find ways to raise military funds.

It's just that when they moved the capital, they killed all the rich families in Luoyang City on charges of collaborating with the enemy, confiscated their property, and took their wives and children into custody. After moving the capital, he continued to fabricate charges and confiscate property among the wealthy households in Guanzhong, and in order to further accumulate wealth, the charges of fabrication expanded from "unfilial piety to the son" and "disobedience to the younger brother" to "disloyalty to the ministers" and "unclear officials".

As for the method of raising military funds led by Lu Bu, it was even more simple and rude, first starting from the people who were driven westward, plundering their food and livestock, and then after the people ran out, it became a move on the dead people underground, digging graves, regardless of the Son of Heaven and the Prince, only on the mountains in the north of Luoyang, almost all of them were dug up by Lu Bu's soldiers.

In Li Ru's view, these are all stupid methods that can be regarded as temporary expedient measures, but if you want to rely on such money-gathering methods for a long time to maintain the operation of a court, it is undoubtedly a self-deceptive thing.

Therefore, he who boasted of having the talent to rejuvenate the king and set the hegemony, just wanted to propose a solid strategy for Dong Zhuo to strike the army and make peace and rest with the people. It's a pity that Dong Zhuo's reaction also told Li Ru openly and secretly that his plan to determine the country was obviously not in line with Dong Zhuowei's appetite for the world and Pingyu compared to the plan he had given Dong Zhuo to steal the country in Hedong before.

However, Li Ru obviously didn't give up, since Dong Zhuo didn't like his plan just now, then he would talk about it in a different way.

So he said respectfully:

"The Duke of Ming worked hard for state affairs, and Confucianism naturally knew it. The army of the Ming Dynasty is indeed strong and brave, and no one can beat it, but Qin swept Liuhe, and what he was afraid of was the strategy of the six countries of Kwantung. ”

"Although the Kanto Prefecture has been defeated repeatedly, it is a tree with deep roots after all, and in times of crisis, they will resist stubbornly and support each other. Just like we got rid of Kong Ling and came to Sun Jian, after sweeping away Liu Dai in Yanzhou, wouldn't there be Jiao He in Qingzhou and Han Fu in Jizhou? ”

"Therefore, if you can't divide the Kanto Prefecture, I'm afraid that the war will drag on for a long time, and it will be a trivial matter for the army to be blunt outside, which will damage the prestige of the Ming Duke and cause fluctuations in the court, which is a big deal!"

In Dong Zhuo's opinion, these tricks of war and deception are much better than those bullshit kings who govern the country and the world, so he also changed his attitude and asked out loud with a little intention:

"What does Wen You mean by pretending to be a truce with the rebellious Kanto Prefecture, and then sending people to appease and divide them, and finally defeat them individually?"

"Ming Gong Yingrui, Confucianism is exactly what it means!"

Li Ru glanced at Dong Zhuo's somewhat moved face, and knew that if he changed to this statement, he had already said that Dong Zhuo had been moved, so he also replied according to Dong Zhuo's meaning.

Dong Zhuo has indeed moved, he is not a stupid person, but he is tired of listening to the set of principles of governing the country and the world in the court, he also noticed that his attitude was a little extreme before, so he put on a kind smile and faced Li Ru, and asked:

"That plan will be settled?"

"According to Confucianism, the strategy of appeasing and dividing the Kanto prefectures and counties can be divided into two steps, and we can first reward those governors who are still loyal to the court or even neutral, and give them titles as a flaunt of those loyal to the court, so as to attract the attention of other prefectures and counties."

"Then send the highly respected ministers of the DPRK to hold the Son of Heaven Festival, and go east to appease the rebellious states and counties, and if there are those precedents for flaunting, we are not afraid that these rebellious governors will not be moved, and we will be able to divide the rebels from them, and then take advantage of the situation to break them individually."

"Good, you have a wonderful plan!"

After listening to Li Ru's plan to appease and divide the weak enemy, Dong Zhuo felt that it was in line with his appetite, and couldn't help but applaud, and he also excitedly began to enrich and improve Li Ru's strategy.

"In my opinion, Youzhou Mu Liu Yu, a clan relative of the Han family, loyal to the royal family, has never merged with the Guandong Prefecture and rebelled against the imperial court, and has made meritorious contributions to governing Youzhou and stabilizing the border, I can just go to the court and ask for credit for Liu Yu, he has been ranked in the third duke, but it is just right, Yuan Kui has also been eliminated by me, vacating a position of the prince and the prince, then let him be the prince, above the three princes, second to the Xiangguo."

"With such a precedent as Liu Yu, I don't believe that those rebellious state and county magistrates are still not moved!"

"As for appeasing the Kanto region, I think it is possible to let the famous Han ministers such as Han Rong, the great Honglu of the DPRK, the Shaofu Yin Xiu, the ruling Jinwu Hu Wuban, and the general master Wu Xun go to the Kanto Prefecture to appease them, and the relationship between these ministers and those Kanto Prefecture counties is intertwined and related, so that those Kanto Prefecture counties can be jealous and suspicious of each other!"

Adding and refining the plan to the back, even Dong Zhuo couldn't help but admire his wisdom and wisdom, and let out a burst of laughter proudly.

After laughing, Dong Zhuo recalled the problem of depletion of national funds that Li Ru had just mentioned, and after calming down, Dong Zhuo also knew that this was a big problem, and it could not be solved by Lu Bu, Liu Huan and others alone, so he began to say:

"Wen You, what you said before, the emptiness of the treasury, I have also thought about it carefully, someone has already proposed to me to abolish the five baht, and mint a small amount of money, and then take the bronze people of Luoyang and Chang'an, Zhong Yu, Feilian, and the bronze horse, to mint money, so that the national treasury will be enriched, and there will be no worries about money and food!"