Let's go back and look at the hustle and bustle.

Although he sent his son to Luoyang as a hostage, Lao Kui's ambition to cut off the male was not reduced at all, but with the development of the situation, it became more surging like a tide.

In order to realize this ambition, on the one hand, he flickered and perfunctory with Liu Xiu, and on the other hand, stepped up preparations in all aspects.

An important aspect of these preparations is to win over and encircle a large number of talented people around them.

After all, dominating the world is not a one-man job, it requires everyone's joint efforts.

However, these talents around him gathered around him at the beginning, not all of them hoped that he would be a brother, and everyone would follow the rising tide and become an official and a half-job, but they wanted to find their own political stage and see if they could do something in this historical trend of recovering the Han Dynasty.

To put it simply, everyone came to you when they saw your old Corporal Kui Lixian, I hope you will lead everyone to make more contributions to the restoration of the Han Dynasty, and I hope you will lead everyone to make contributions under the leadership of a real emperor like Liu Xiu, and the real first brother should be Liu Xiu.

For example, as we said earlier, Zheng Xing's strong antipathy towards Lao Kui's political formalism is very representative.

However, Lao Kui is very unwilling, and always feels that now all the heroes are competing for the world, and it is far from the time to end.

Speaking of which, I can't help but feel emotional!

Think about Kui Huan was a literati back then, and when his uncle and brother raised troops, he tried his best to dissuade him, thinking that it was very dangerous and bloody to use soldiers to fight. However, after being pushed by his relatives to raise troops, until today, Lao Kui is so keen on fighting that he can't be a brother!

What motivates him? What motivates him? What is he pursuing that he can risk his net worth and life?

The answer is only 2 words: power.

Oh, and maybe 4 words: supreme power.

Power is so magical! It made Liu Yong the emperor, Pang Meng rebelled, Deng Feng rebelled, Peng Pet attacked his superiors, let Zhang Feng, a prefectural and department-level cadre, dare to call himself a brother with a stone tied to his arm, and let Lao Kui join the ranks of chasing it!

The pursuit of power is understandable, as long as you use normal means and do not harm others and society. In particular, public power is still an important tool for people of insight to serve the people.

However, no matter what the dynasty, the supreme power cannot be shared. Whoever wants to get involved will trigger the most tragic struggle, and even the bloodiest strangulation.

Lao Kui's transformation from a scholar to a prince is already his personal political success. He already has considerable public power, and he already has a good platform to serve the people well. His personal glory and wealth, and his desire to glorify his ancestors, are not a problem.

What's more, Liu Xiu also wanted him to enter the court as an official and work in the central government.

However, he is not satisfied, his ambition is surging, he has to chase the supreme power, he has to join the most tragic struggle and the bloodiest strangulation, none of us can do anything about him.

Look.

Lao Kui really wanted to find his own guiding ideology and theoretical basis among the intellectuals around him, and often discussed with them the trend of the current situation.

Zheng Xing couldn't count on it, he always persuaded himself to hurry up and pay tribute to Liu Xiu, which made people very uncomfortable.

Then consult Ban Biao.

Ban Biao is a generation of Confucianism, and we should respectfully focus the spotlight on him.

Ban Biao, whose name is Uncle Pi, was born in Fufeng Anling (now northeast of Xianyang, Shaanxi), and was born in a cadre family. He had a special interest in history and scholarship from an early age, and was bright and studious.

His contribution to history is mainly reflected in his personal ability and the education of his children.

Throughout his life, he liked to delve into knowledge, write books and speak. His painstaking work "The Later Biography of the Historical Records" has 65 chapters, completing the history of the Western Han Dynasty that was not recorded in Sima Qian's "Historical Records", and has a far-reaching impact.

He also often used classics such as "Historical Records" to educate his children, and his family was full of books.

If we invite his three children out as well, the contributions made by the grandfather to China's cultural construction, national reunification, and national harmony will be dazzling.

The eldest son, Ban Gu, whose name is Meng Jian, has worked hard for more than 20 years to write 100 articles of "Book of Han", which is the first chronicle of the history of the dynasty in China, and his "Liangdu Fu" is a masterpiece that cannot be bypassed by learning the history of Chinese literature;

The second son Ban Chao, the word Zhongsheng, was originally a scholar who made a living by selling literature, resolutely abandoned literature and martial arts, and followed the national relative Dou Gu to the Northern Expedition against the Huns.

Daughter Ban Zhao, the word Hui Ji, since childhood, diligent and studious, talented, both literary and historical, deeply favored by the royal family, was called into the palace as the queen, the nobleman's tutor, because of its high learning, in-law surname Cao, known as "Cao family", her "Eastern Expedition Fu" is a masterpiece in the history of Chinese literature, "Female Commandment" is a classic of women's norms.

However, the current Comrade Ban Biao is still a guest under Kui Huan, only in his 20s, and his children have not yet been born.

The current class comrades are completely relying on their personal ability and charm, and they are eyed by heroes all over the world.

Although he is in troubled times, he can always behave well, his character is noble and elegant, and he will never be a dog and a dog, and he will be willing to be poor and tranquil.

(Ban Biao is a Confucian talent, leaning between the danger and chaos, not exceeding the square, not rushing forward, not violating the people, perfunctory Wenhua to the national code, guarding the cheap and not stuffy.) ）

In short, this is a rare perfect person.

Kui Huan thought that Ban Biao was the most knowledgeable, and wanted to get a theoretical basis for his own dominance from him.

Dealing with scholars, Lao Kui doesn't want to go straight and makes it very wordy.

One day, Kui Huan discussed with Ban Biao in the attitude of discussing academics, and he talked a lot about the death of Zhou Hanxing and Wang Mang's new policy, which boiled down to a central idea: that is, the evolution of history, the key lies in the power of the hero to turn things around.

In other words, his view of history is that history is created by heroes and operated by a few.

He asked Ban Biao:

"Isn't it often the emergence of heroes who bear the responsibility of dynastic change? Please share your opinion. ”

(Will carry Diexing, lies in one person also?) I wish to try it. ）

Lao Kui's purpose is very clear, if he wants to develop independently, he must abandon the slogan of reviving the Han dynasty and raise the banner of personal heroism. Otherwise, if you want to go it alone and don't want to belong to Liu Xiu, there will be no reason and morality.

However, Ban Biao poured a basin of cold water on his head.

It should be noted that Kui Huan's search for self-reliance from the intellectuals around him was very hard and boring. He obviously has made up his mind to stand on his own, but he doesn't say it directly, and often has to go around in a big circle, and these literati need to quote scriptures and tell him bitterly: This road is not working.

Friends who are engaged in specialized research can have a good smack and smack the twists and turns of their speech, although it is very verbose, but it is also very interesting.

But in order to save most of my friends' time, let's keep it simple.

Comrade Ban Biao said a lot of things, analyzed in detail the historical trend of the Zhou Dynasty and the Han Dynasty, analyzed the case that Wang Mang's emergence was only the result of the political bias of the Han Dynasty, analyzed the inevitable trend of today's social and historical development in the revival of the Han Dynasty, analyzed the mainstream social consciousness of "calling Liu Shi Xian and not agreeing with each other" in the troubled times when the heroes were competing with each other, and analyzed the objective reality that Liu Xiu was gradually becoming the co-master of the world.

As a matter of fact, Comrade Ban's attitude was very sincere and serious, and his analysis showed a sharp vision for perceiving social changes and the various situations of life, and showed extraordinary political acumen and political insight.

However, at this time, Lao Kui had already made his mind faint and went mad, and he couldn't listen to different opinions at all. He was naturally extremely dissatisfied with Comrade Ban's answer.

He angrily robbed the comrades of the day shift:

"I agree with what you said about the historical trend of the Zhou Dynasty and the Han Dynasty, but you say that the world only knows that the revival of the Liu clan and the Liu Han dynasty is a historical necessity, which is wrong. Thinking that the Qin Dynasty was in decline, Liu Bang conquered the world with his own hands, before Liu Bang, who knew that there would be a Han Dynasty?! ”

Comrade Ban was very helpless, but no matter from the perspective of work or comradeship, he did not want Kui Huan to embark on the road of no return.

After returning home, Comrade Ban was disgusted by Kui Huan's view, lamented the difficult situation, and thought about it for a long time, but decided to responsibly persuade Kui Huan in writing.

He wrote a thousand-word "Theory of the King's Destiny" and sent it to Kui Huan, reiterating his views in an attempt to understand Kui Huan.

However, Lao Kui was not moved at all.

Seeing that Kui was already determined to be self-reliant, Comrade Ban felt helpless, and did not want to die with him, so he found an excuse to leave.

Comrade Ban ran to Hexi County and defected to Dou Rong, the general of Hexi Taishou and Hexi Five Counties.

Hexi is west of the Yellow River in today's Gansu and Qinghai provinces, which is the Hexi Corridor and the Huangshui Basin.

Dou Rong is a native of Fufeng Pingling, and Ban Biao is a fellow countryman, and he has long admired Ban Biao's talent. Now seeing Ban Biao's return, Dou Rong was very happy, and immediately appointed him as his political councilor (engaged) and treated him like a guest.

Ban Biao devoted himself to helping Dou Rong make suggestions, formulate and implement the strategy and tactics of coordinating the development of Hexi, east, and Liu Xiu.

Ironically, Comrade Ban considered the problem very thoroughly, and even helped Dou Rong plan how to resist the hustle and bustle when he returned to Luoyang in the east.

(Biao is a strategist for the fusion of paintings, and the general Hexi is to reject the hustle and bustle.) ）

Dou Rong is a high-quality, high-level politician and military strategist, and he is also a fan of Liu Xiu who has never met, and we will talk about him later.

Because Kui Huan is ostensibly attached to Liu Xiu, but in fact wants to cut off the land and stand on his own, and on the surface, Corporal Lixian is actually just using talents as tools, and his hypocrite face gradually becomes clear.

As they saw more and more through Lao Kui's true face, a large number of talents gradually lost confidence in him.

What to do? Run.

But if everyone proposes to leave together, Kui Huan will definitely not do it.

What to do? Let's go our own way.

Seeing that Ma Yuan went to Luoyang with Kui, Zheng Xing took the opportunity to ask Lao Kui for leave and asked to go back to his hometown in Kaifeng, Henan Province to bury his parents.

This statement is really too good, people's fathers and mothers are dead and want to be buried, and no one can stop them even if they have 10,000 reasons.

However, Lao Kui seemed to be aware of everyone's tendency to deviate from morality, and even replied to Lao Zheng: No leave.

Lao Kui vulgarly believes that Zheng Xing should be given more benefits and benefits in order to keep him.

So, he immediately gave Lao Zheng a salary increase, a change of house, and an increase in political treatment.

(If you don't listen to it, you will be able to give it up.) ）

In fact, Lao Zheng begged to go, completely because of his disappointment in Kui Huan and his eagerness to defect to Liu Xiu, which had nothing to do with his material treatment.

He really had no choice, so he went to see Kui Huan and resigned again in person: Please lead, let me go!

He said:

"I did ask to go back to my hometown because I wanted to bury my parents, if I changed my mind and didn't go back because of the general, you gave me a salary increase and a house, then I used my parents as bait for personal interests, which is really immoral, how can you do this, general?"

Kui Huan was very frustrated, and said stupidly:

"Am I really unable to keep my old friends?"

Lao Zheng had already made up his mind, so he asked for his resignation again and again, and finally said:

"I asked for leave because I wanted to bury my parents, and I had to go back no matter what, but I left my wife and children behind, and I went back to my hometown alone, what else can the general suspect?"

(Xingye pleases for his parents, he can't help it, he wants to leave his wife to be buried alone, how can the general guess?) ）

Alas, if anyone talks about this, he has already said it: I use my parents as a gambler, and my wife and children as hostages, please let me go, right?

Lao Kui had no choice but to say, okay then.

Yes, the twisted melon is not sweet, if the twist is too strong, the melon and the melon seedling can be killed.

Seeing that Kui was about to set off, Zheng Xing immediately packed up in a hurry. He seems to be afraid of long nights and dreams, and he is afraid that Lao Kui will regret it: Let's go quickly, I really don't want to stay here anymore!

Kui Huan was very helpless, feeling that the matter had come to this point, and it was useless to leave Zheng Xing's wife and children behind, so he could only offend him even more, and simply let their whole family go.

In 30 AD, Zheng Xing, a generation of great Confucianism and a famous scholar-type politician, finally broke free from the fetters of Kui, returned to Luoyang, and defected to Liu Xiu.