Finally dealt with all the important officials and sealing matters, Zhuge Jin of course didn't want to stay in Xu Du for a day.

The things that should have been asked for have already been overloaded, and Cao Cao has already noticed him.

And it is nonsense to want to poach talents from Xu Du, and I have tried and failed before. The people who come here want to be canonized directly by the imperial court, and the purpose is very clear, just like those who "would rather have a bed in the capital than a suite in other places" in later generations.

Even so, Zhuge Jin didn't want to make any more extraneous branches. After leaving the palace, he planned to leave the city at noon that day.

It's a pity that Cao Cao seems to want to give them a last favor, so he has to set up a private banquet for him and Chen Deng in Sikong Mansion to practice, and then order someone to privately send some gold jewelry as a coil.

The scale of the banquet was not large, and Cao Cao himself, plus Xun Yu, Sima Lang, and Geng Ji participated.

Zhuge Jin couldn't refuse, so he had to continue to pretend to be flattered, and he was false and wronged with the other party, and he drank until the afternoon.

Just as the banquet was coming to an end, the arrival of an uninvited guest suddenly interrupted the atmosphere of the banquet.

I saw Cao Cao drinking and drawing a big cake of the official's wish, and a subordinate official of Sikong Mansion hurriedly came in to report to him,

Cao Cao raised his eyebrows, his face was slightly unhappy, but he still held back, immediately got up and tidied up the hem of his clothes, and turned to Zhuge Jin and ordered: "Ziyu is so knowledgeable, he actually went up to heaven to listen." The Son of Heaven sent Zhao Yilang to summon, there must be something important, and I will go out to greet him together. ”

It turned out that Liu Xie sent Zhao Yan to summon him, and he didn't know what was going on, but he had just seen it during the court meeting in the morning.

Zhao Yan went to the Xuzhou County Mansion just now, but he didn't find Zhuge Jin, and only after asking others did he find Sikong Mansion all the way.

Cao Cao personally led people out to greet him, and after they finished saluting, Zhao Yan said: "Your Majesty After today's court meeting, I feel that Captain Zhuge has learned a lot, so he asked left and right. I learned that he had been in the debate of the scriptures and righteousness, and he was better than the current celebrity and gentleman, and his argument was high. His Majesty is fist-oriented to learning, and wants to summon the rise and fall of the pre-Qin and this dynasty. ”

Only then did everyone know that it was because Zhuge Jin refuted Youheng's remarks in front of more than 100 officials and scholars that day, and it reached Liu Xie's ears.

Cao Cao was surprised at first, how could this kind of folk academic debate interest the emperor?

But he reacted quickly, and then realized that Liu Xie was looking for some spiritual sustenance and comfort - after all, the previous four hundred years of Han Confucianism all said that "Qin was virtuous first, but then lost morality, Han inherited Qin virtue, inherent in the world".

In this way, every time the world is stormy, countless people will wonder if Han has also reached the time of immorality.

An important reason why Wang Mang was able to usurp the Han Dynasty was that Confucianism itself took refuge in Wang Mang and created momentum for Wang Mang, saying that Wang Mang inherited Han virtue.

However, Zhuge Jin refuted You Heng's remarks the day before yesterday and postponed the "beginning of virtue" from "one day down" to "set the world". If you dig deeper, it is possible to dig out that "Qin will be finished before he has time to be virtuous, so Han is the Yuan Virtue, and the beginning of Lourdes is also".

As Liu Xie, once he learned about this political philosophical theory, how could he not want to dig deeper into this spiritual sustenance?

After thinking about this, Cao Cao had nothing to blame Zhuge Jin, and the emperor had a private chat with him, which should not be for some real power governance strategy.

As for the emperor asking for spiritual comfort, hehe, what kind of waves can this kind of ethereal thing turn over?

Cao Cao was the most pragmatic person, and he despised the role of political philosophy the most, so he was not worried at all.

Zhuge Jin was still a little cautious, and hurriedly accused Zhao Yan: "Your Majesty is summoned immediately?" The minister has just drunk a banquet, and he is afraid that he will lose his honor after drinking......"

Zhao Yan didn't embarrass him: "Your Majesty's dictation, just meet you early tomorrow morning." ”

The emperor temporarily summoned people, some of them were very urgent, but more of them made an appointment in advance. Because the emperor doesn't know when the messenger will find someone, he won't be waiting all the time. Academic discussion of this kind of thing is not an urgent official business.

Zhuge Jin breathed a sigh of relief, and after sending Zhao Yan off, he had to ask Cao Cao for instructions again: when he was debating with You Heng that day, in order to win, he made a shocking statement for a while, and he didn't know that when he arrived in front of the emperor, he should not talk about it......

Cao Cao didn't embarrass him, set the tone a little, and asked him not to be too embarrassed about his predecessors, grasp the scale, and then let him go back to his residence.

Cao Cao also saw that after Zhuge Jin heard Zhao Yan's summons, his first reaction was to use the excuse of drinking too much to delay, and then asked him again.

It can be seen that there is no conspiracy in this matter, that is, the emperor made a temporary idea, and the discussion was also Confucianism, so it is impossible to have any substantial harm.

If Zhuge Jin was like Dong Cheng three years later in parallel time and space, he hurried to the right place immediately when he was summoned by the emperor, and did not ask Cao Cao for instructions, then Cao Cao would wonder if it was the right time to give secrets.

……

was interrupted by the messenger of the Son of Heaven, and the banquet ended in a hurry.

Because he was summoned early the next morning, Zhuge Jin hurriedly returned to the Xuzhou County Mansion, packed everything first, and instructed Chen Dengming to help him go out of the city with his entourage and luggage earlier, and wait at the Weishui Pavilion thirty miles east of the city.

Zhuge Jin himself only left Chen Zhi and a few strong martial arts guards, and immediately slipped away after the royal prelude was over.

Everything went well, and in the blink of an eye, it was the morning of the next day, October 22.

Zhuge Jin didn't dare to slack off, and rushed to the palace with Chen Zhi and several others early in the morning, left Chen Zhi at the door, and followed the eunuch into by himself, and then was received by Zhao Yan and taken directly to the palace.

Liu Xie received him in the study, and there were only a few close attendants and palace maids around him, obviously calling him alone.

When he saw Zhuge Jin, Liu Xie had an inexplicable expectation in his eyes, and he first asked a few details about how Zhuge Jin helped Kong Rong coordinate the renovation of the palace.

Zhuge Jin also knew everything, and explained the strategy of "three battles in one fell swoop" in more detail. Including how much labor cost can be saved by water transportation compared with land transportation, and how much backfill after dredging can be saved compared with distant soil mining.

Liu Xie is also quite pragmatic, two and a half years ago, when he was still under the control of Li Dao, there was a great hunger in Guanzhong, and Liu Xie asked people to open the treasury for disaster relief.

However, there was a responsible official Hou Wen who cheated, and Liu Xie asked people to take rice and beans to cook porridge in front of the emperor for experiments, and then cooperated with Hou Wen's account to prove that the other party was indeed greedy for ink, and severely punished Hou Wen.

It can be seen that Liu Xie's mathematical level and empirical thinking are relatively good among the emperors of the Han Dynasty. Therefore, Zhuge Jin's report to him about the construction of the palace to save money and detailed accounts also made Liu Xie listen to it with relish, and once again praised Zhuge Jin for being a pragmatic talent.

After chatting for a while, Liu Xie suddenly changed his conversation and turned to the debate between Zhuge Jin and You Heng that day:

"Zhuge Qing, I still don't know anything, I heard that you said that day, 'one day' is not the beginning of virtue, but only a means, and 'setting the world' is the beginning of virtue, which is the goal, and I also think it makes sense.

So tell me, did Qin get the 'virtue' of 'the virtuous people in the world', and whether Qin Shi Huang was orthodox or stole the world? Am I Emperor Gao the Yuan De? Or did he inherit Qin De? ”

Zhuge Jin smiled bitterly slightly, he knew that in order to regain the authority of the imperial family from the chaos as soon as possible, the emperor did not hesitate to grasp any straw that could increase the sacredness of his rule.

However, if Qin De is completely denied in front of the emperor, Cao Cao will definitely be in trouble if he knows about it. Because Cao Cao inevitably did not want the emperor of the Han Dynasty to have unprecedented sacredness.

It's just that Zhuge Jin can't go back on his word directly.

After a short period of intense thinking, he finally thought of a plan to get out of the situation without offending both sides: "Your Majesty, what the minister said that day was just a discussion of the scriptures, and the minister was young and knowledgeable, and he had just entered the official career, and he did not dare to speak falsely about the actual government.

Qin Shi Huang may have had the idea of 'completely unifying the world and eliminating external troubles', and then he re-"lightly punished the meager endowments and used the people's power saved by the unification of the world for the people", but this can no longer be proven.

Because he didn't live to that day, who knows what Qin Shi Huang would have done if he lived another ten or eight years and completely pacified Baiyue? He died in the process of 'one day down', and the aftermath became a mystery. ”

A hint of disappointment flashed in Liu Xie's eyes, but then a new glimmer of hope flashed. He seized on the new psychological solace and anxiously asked: "Do you think that Qin Shi Huang died in the process of 'unifying the world'?" Didn't he unite the six kingdoms twelve years before he died? ”

Zhuge Jin knew that once he chose to deal with it tactfully, it would cause more doubts about academic details, but he could only continue to walk. So he took a deep breath and said: "It depends on how Qin Shi Huang defines 'the world' in his own heart, if the destruction of the six countries is considered to unify the world, it will naturally be no problem."

But he continued to use troops after destroying the Six Kingdoms, perhaps because he regarded the Xiongnu and Baiyue as part of the world, and Qin Shi Huang's understanding of the world may have surpassed the Zhou people's 'outside the world, all are barbarians'. ”

Zhuge Jin's words may be difficult for later generations to understand, and one sentence must be explained, that is, according to the definition of the word "under heaven" by the Zhou Dynasty, barbarians are not counted within the scope of the world.

Therefore, Qi Huan Gong dealt with Laiyi and helped Yan State fight Shanjung, which could be regarded as "a Kuang world" in the Zhou Dynasty, which was "expanding the scope of the world and turning the place that was originally barbarian into a part of the world".

Zhuge Jin cited Qin Shi Huang's question as "the goal is not clear before doing things, and it counts where it goes", which also avoided the question of whether there will be a day.

Seeing that the emperor was not very satisfied, he inadvertently added: "What's more, if you have to say that Qin has not gone down for a day, you can also talk about it from Minyue." Many of the hundred Yue were not after the end of the Warring States period and the Yue King Goujian, but the Ouyue King and the Minyue King in the Qin period were indeed after Goujian and belonged to the scope of the 'Chinese world'.

In the year of his death, Qin Shi Huang successfully broke through Dongye (now Fuzhou) and forced his landing. However, Qin Zhizhi was unable to occupy the southern half of present-day Huiji County (Fujian), and the king of Ouyue had another heir to establish himself in the local area, from this point of view, to say that Qin Shi Huang was indeed short of 'eliminating all the princes who belonged to the world'. ”

Hearing Zhuge Jin say this, Liu Xie finally found psychological comfort, and his expression was much more relaxed.

He also noticed that Zhuge Jin couldn't let go of his words, and at this moment, the other party happened to mention some historical cases, so Liu Xie's heart moved and proposed: "There is such a thing? It's that I don't know how to study history, Zhao Yan. ”

"The minister is here." Zhao Yan hurriedly agreed.

Liu Xie instructed: "And follow me to the library, look for the "Historical Records" and "Book of Han" and check them in detail to confirm this. ”

As he spoke, Zhao Yan led the way, took Zhuge Jin, and went to the emperor's private library together.

The palace maid and eunuch next to him wanted to follow and serve, but Liu Xie stopped them, on the grounds that "I need to study quietly when I go to the library, and I don't want to be disturbed by the noise."

This is very reasonable, and the attendants had no choice but to stay, and no one thought about "avoiding Cao Cao's eyes and ears".

When there was no one else left and right, Liu Xie took out a volume of "Qin Shi Huang Benji" of the historical records, and after consulting it, he sighed, took the book in his hand, and asked:

"Zhuge Qing, I still have a fear - if I say that Qin Shi Huang does not have Yuande, then wouldn't it be that Emperor Gao created Yuande from scratch with the body of a pavilion chief? Is it that from now on, as long as there is anyone who can make the world stable, end the civil war, and use the saved people's power to the people, he will also gain virtue? ”

Zhuge Jin was anxious to get out, knowing that he would not give Liu Xie more comfort, for fear that he would have a long night and a lot of dreams.

So he gritted his teeth and said something that completely relieved Liu Xie: "If Your Majesty is really panicked, it is better to change your mind and think that the virtue of Emperor Gao comes from Emperor Yi, and it is not impossible." ”