Please call me Your Majesty!

Chapter 168 Wang Huai’s three dimensions, Huan Sheng’s violent suppression.

Wang Huai's three-dimensional values ​​are relatively biased.

Apart from political ability of 82 points, which far exceeds other abilities, the only relatively high one is ambition.

His ambition is 75 points, so when the Zhou Dynasty is in decline, this person may commit rebellious acts.

But Chu Shizhao could see that the value of ambition depended entirely on the ability of the monarch.

If you are strong enough, there is no room for any ambition, no matter how high it is.

Wang Huai’s political ability is actually very special.

Because in the [Emperor Growth Plan], there are also differences in political ability. Some people have the ability to govern internal affairs and tend to be pragmatic, while some people's political ability lies in interpersonal relationship management.

It can even be said to be the ability to stand in line.

Therefore, Wang Huai's overall ability cannot be considered outstanding.

Chu Shizhao found a separate entry for Wang Huai as a minister card in the minister interface - [Playing both sides].

[Getting the best of both worlds]: You have a clearer judgment of the situation and can accurately perceive the options that are beneficial to you, thus allowing you to find a handy solution in a bad situation. (Intelligence +3, Politics +6, Morality -3).

The position of a minister card with this entry is not firm, and the monarch holding this minister card will easily be shaken if he does not have absolute advantage.

It’s really unreliable.

However, Chu Shizhao had never intended to give Wang Huai a very high priority. As long as he could play a role, it would be fine. If he couldn't, he could let him go at any time.

This kind of minister will be exploited to death. The friendship between the monarch and his subjects can exist, but one cannot completely trust one side.

Chu Shizhao didn't think much about it.

During this southern expedition, my father will definitely need him.

It is not a question of power or fear, but that in this Zhou Dynasty, there are no longer any people who can actually solve the problems.

At this time, if Emperor Yongjin really wanted to preserve the country and people of the Great Zhou Dynasty, he had to trust Chu Shizhao.

He has no choice.

The Great Zhou Dynasty had no second better choice.

At dawn the next day, Emperor Yongjin did not allow Chu Shizhao to stay in Chang'an because of the impeachment and admonition of his ministers, but ordered Chu Shizhao to immediately dispatch troops to the south to quell the rebellion.

Chu Shizhao continued to use his personal troops, led by the New Army of the Northern Palace, to follow him throughout the journey. As for the people from other legions, Chu Shizhao greeted them, made sure that the general commander would be in his hands, and then prepared to set off.

The Great Zhou Dynasty was still a unified dynasty in name. With the order of Emperor Yongjin, no one else would openly go against Chu Shizhao.

Moreover, most of the soldiers in the army are still farmers, but the generals are from aristocratic families.

When Chu Shizhao's popularity in the army reached a certain level, the orders of these generals sometimes might not have much effect on them.

In fact, it is still a channel issue.

The soldiers below can usually come into contact with these generals. If Chu Shizhao could directly contact these soldiers, what he says would be more effective than what these generals say, and many things would be much easier to handle.

The difficulty in suppressing the rebellion this time was not actually suppressing the rebellion, but winning back the hearts of the people.

It is easy to put down a rebellion. Who can't lead troops to suppress it?

The problem is how to solve the problem from the root. You have to find out the reasons why these people rebel. Otherwise, even if you put down the rebellion this time, there will be a new rebellion next time.

The answer is simple.

Why the uprising.

Because they can’t survive and there is no land to farm.

Where is the land?

In the hands of the rich, in the hands of officials, and in the hands of landlords.

The inequality of status between the two parties, one can live well while the other cannot, this is a conflict and a contradiction.

But Chu Shizhao wanted to make the rich, the officials, and the landlords bleed.

is it possible?
impossible.

Treat the feudal dynasty as a big company.

Are mid- and senior-level leaders willing to cut salaries in order to revitalize the entire company and allow more workers to survive?
Unrealistic.

When you have a monthly salary of 100,000, you will not be able to survive if you are asked to live on a monthly salary of 20,000.

Then another solution is to make the company CEO bleed, and make the emperor of the Zhou Dynasty bleed.

But the problem is that the feudal dynasty is not exactly like a company.

You also need money for blood transfusion!
The Great Zhou Dynasty obviously did not have the economic strength to bleed the grassroots people, otherwise in these simulations, Chu Shizhao would not have gone to the point of attacking the wealthy families first.

If you want to completely resolve the uprising of the people, you have to balance the interests well, but this is very difficult to do.

It is easy to suppress the common people, but are you able to suppress the rebellion of the officials, literati, and the ruling class?
You can only unite the people to suppress the ruling class in the middle.

But they can also unite the people!
It’s nothing more than giving money and land.

From the government's perspective, Chu Shizhao's first step in suppressing the uprising was to suppress the rebels as much as possible.

Find a way to arrest these people.

Stay out of the spotlight.

We cannot pacify these rebel forces right from the start.

Otherwise, path dependence will be formed. These rebels will think that they have gained benefits by being summoned to the imperial court this time, and they can gain benefits again the next time they rebel.

This is just like Hou Junji, who thought he had gained huge benefits by helping Li Shimin in the Xuanwu Gate Incident.

He could help his son-in-law Li Chengqian to stage another Xuanwu Gate Incident and succeed.

Solve the symptoms of the disaster first, then consider the root cause.

Allowing these rebel forces to grow larger will only cause more problems.

These people are all laborers. If they can be used for their own benefit, the actual benefits will be greater.

Let me tell you a joke. The Qing Dynasty did not pay the farmers they hired to work, and would even beat them if they did not do their job well. However, the Eight-Nation Alliance paid the farmers they hired, which led to many people serving as guides for the Eight-Nation Alliance.

What the Great Zhou Dynasty lacks now is this credibility.

The common people feel that your government does not keep its word. Every time you say what you will do, but when it comes time to do something, you do nothing and even bully them. This is because you are being forced into a corner.

Chu Shizhao estimated the time and thought that it would take at least half a month to reach the destination by water. Huan Sheng had set out half a month earlier than him, so he should have just happened to run into this rebel army. With Huan Sheng's ability, it would not be difficult for him to suppress the rebellion.

However, Huan Sheng's attitude towards the people was not gentle, as he himself was a representative of a powerful family.

How could the bureaucrats of the old era empathize with the real grassroots?

However, with a hardliner like Huan Sheng leading the way, when Chu Shizhao arrives, he will be able to negotiate many things that were previously unresolved.

Huan Sheng at this time.

He has indeed taken office as the Governor-General of the Southeast in Yingtian Prefecture.

In the Zhou Dynasty, the position of Jiedushi was one with real power, while the position of governor was more of a nominal local chief, and it depended on whether the court gave him military power.

If they are not given military power, their nominal status and position in the local area will be higher than that of local officials, but their words may not be effective.

When Huan Sheng was sent to the southeast by Emperor Yongjin, Emperor Yongjin gave him the authority to dispatch troops in the southeast at will.

However, that being said, it also depends on whether the local authorities cooperate or not.

Even if a capable person does not have military power, he can still make up for the mistakes of local officials and drive them to do things.

Even if a person has military power and is incompetent, his subordinates may pretend to obey his orders but actually disobey them.

Huan Sheng was well aware of his importance in the southeast, so when he arrived in Yingtian Prefecture, he actively contacted the officials there.

A strong dragon will not overwhelm a local snake.

When Huan Sheng arrived in Yingtian Prefecture, he did not touch the interests of local officials. The first thing he did was to make his attitude clear. He wanted to prepare for a rainy day and prevent trouble before it happens.

If he said so, the officials of Yingtian Prefecture would certainly cooperate actively. As long as he was not here to investigate or make things difficult for them, they would be willing to discuss anything.

This time, the uprising of the White Sleeves Army directly scared the officials in this area of ​​the south half to death.

The presence of rebels in areas under their jurisdiction is a crime.

Regardless of whether the rebellion was pacified or not, someone would definitely have to pay for it afterwards, and Huan Sheng knew very well that this was the best time for him to gain power.

He came out and took the blame directly.

If something goes wrong, Huan Sheng will take the responsibility, but you local officials must actively cooperate with him. Huan Sheng wants soldiers, food and power.

The Zhou Dynasty was plagued by corruption, and some people took the blame. These people were naturally happy to see that the power was only given temporarily, and they certainly did not believe that Huan Sheng could get away with it after such an incident.

They might be transferred back to Beijing, so when there was a leader willing to take over the responsibility, they responded immediately.

At that time, you, Huan Sheng, will have to take on as much responsibility as your power. Even though they are very enthusiastic in cooperating, when problems arise, they will all jointly impeach Huan Sheng, and all the problems will be on Huan Sheng's head.

However, Huan Sheng was notoriously crazy.

What this person wants is high returns and high risks. If he doesn't do this, can he gather power in his own hands so quickly?
Moreover, the reason why all local officials are cooperating with him now is simply because it concerns the official hats on their heads.

Huan Sheng tied the interests of these people together, so he was naturally not afraid that some people would not work hard.

The White Sleeves Army's uprising did show an unstoppable momentum at the beginning, and they captured nine cities in a row, creating a huge momentum.

However, after Huan Sheng organized the government troops and surrounded these rebellious areas, the White Sleeve Army soon fell into chaos in the areas controlled by the well-equipped government troops.

Huan Sheng just didn't take the initiative to attack the city.

He ran out of food.

War consumes food. Most rebel armies start uprisings in a hurry without any food reserves. These people are generally like green forest robbers, fighting wherever they can.

Once a city is captured, they will enjoy the granary in the city to their heart's content. Moreover, the quality of the rebel generals varies, and they may not be able to control their food consumption.

Many people were starving. It was the first time they saw so much food, so they had to wolf it down and eat until they were full at every meal.

Rebellion is like having one meal before you have no food to eat. If the consumption continues like this, Huan Sheng believes that it is only a matter of time before food runs out.

However, Huan Sheng's approach to the enemy would depend on how quickly these rebels could capture territory.

If it's fast, it won't be useful. If the speed of conquering the place is slow, it will be much easier to solve.

Moreover, Huan Sheng also ordered the government troops in other places to be on high alert to prevent the emergence of so-called rebel forces in other places to respond to the uprising.

Huan Sheng was of course afraid that a few bandits would pop up from other places, holding the banner of the rebel army and causing more trouble, but he believed that these rebels were opportunists.

If the situation in the Great Zhou Dynasty is not good, they will join the White Sleeves Army in rebellion, but if the White Sleeves Army cannot get things done, these people may not dare to respond.

However, Huan Sheng underestimated the corruption of the Zhou Dynasty's bureaucracy and its oppression of the people.

There was nothing wrong with his policies and ideas, but people's hearts were the most difficult to read. Just because the situation in the Great Zhou Dynasty was good on the surface, it didn't mean that some people would sit back and wait and see and not respond to the uprising.

The fact is, the people of the Great Zhou Dynasty lived a hard life, and the heavy taxes were as fierce as a tiger. Even if the White Sleeves Army's uprising did not succeed, they fired the first shot of the uprising. With such an example, more and more people will wake up.

Song Xun, a small salt smuggler, landed from the sea with more than one hundred people. While the attention of the southern counties was focused on Pizhou and Yingzhou, he took advantage of the opportunity to attack Shangyu and raid Kuaiji County.

His thunderous tactics in the city won the support of many farmers and slaves, and he killed all the bureaucrats in the city. Those landlords who were afraid of having their property taken away also responded to Song Xun's uprising and expressed their willingness to provide grain support, which directly gave Song Xun a foothold.

Such changes forced Huan Sheng, who had made careful plans, to change his strategy.

Huan Sheng's approach actually has no problems or loopholes.

The Great Zhou Dynasty covered a large area, and it was impossible for the rebel army to have any chance by fighting a protracted war and a campaign of attrition. If the war dragged on for too long, how could the rebel army, which had been separated from production, have enough food to continue fighting? At a certain stage, these rebel army would die from lack of food and fall into civil strife.

But the house leaked every night rain.

Just when things were getting better here, another uprising was about to break out on the other side. Song Xun easily captured Kuaiji County, which would set a leading role. Others who were waiting for the right time and watching the changes would also think that this would be a good opportunity and immediately join the uprising.

As expected, on the third day after Song Xun conquered Kuaiji County, other poor people who were dissatisfied with the Zhou Dynasty also started an uprising.

This forced Huan Sheng to move even if he had to, and to fight even if he had to.

Otherwise, the court would suspect Huan Sheng of harboring the enemy and being incapable of handling the problem, which would undermine Chu Shizhao's career.

Huan Sheng had to dispatch government troops to attack the cities occupied by the White Sleeves. The government troops were much better equipped than the rebels, and many of them had received military training, unlike the rebels who were mostly farmers. In just two days, Huan Sheng captured three county towns.

Huan Sheng was not as far-sighted as Chu Shizhao. He was a minister, not a king. He did not need to consider what was practical or not, nor did he need to think deeply about the deep-seated conflicts between the common people and the big families. This was not what Huan Sheng should have done.

He should not be the one to deal with the conflicts between the common people and the powerful families.

Huan Sheng did not keep any prisoners for the captured White Sleeve Army. He killed them all on the spot for the crime of treason to serve as a warning to others.

This is within his job scope.

By the time Chu Shizhao arrived in Yingtian Prefecture from Chang'an, there were as many as 29 counties and prefectures in the south that had rebelled. Huan Sheng traveled around to put down the rebellions, but the rebel armies continued to emerge like bamboo shoots after a spring rain.

As soon as he arrived in Yingtian Prefecture, Chu Shizhao immediately found Huan Sheng to inquire about the situation and immediately took over all affairs in the southeast.

(End of this chapter)