Chinese dining table

Chapter 1229 Li Zhi's Board Game

There are two ways people age: one is related to age, and the other is related to mentality.

According to Yun Chu's observation, the open-mindedness, tolerance, calmness and wisdom expressed by the elderly were actually all pretended. When he was alone, his heart was actually very anxious.

If you can control yourself well, you will be a good old man, even a perfect old man in the eyes of children, with countless virtues such as kindness, generosity, etc.

If one cannot control oneself, then it will be a disaster. One's stingy, mean, irritable, lustful and unreasonable nature will be completely exposed, making the children's life miserable.

Li Zhi's condition became more serious. Not only was he old in body, but he was also old mentally, and the symptoms that showed on the outside were even more serious.

However, he at least invited Yun Chu to have a meal with him. Of course, there was inevitably a bear on the table.

Having been with Li Zhi for nearly twenty years, this bear had become very strict with table manners. At least he knew to push his beloved roast chicken in front of the guest, Yun Chu.

Compared with the giant bear, Li Zhi's table manners were terrible. He said that the thing he regretted most in his life was marrying Wu Mei as his queen. If he had known this would be the outcome, he should have castrated himself.

Then he scolded Li Hong and called him a wolf cub. He was lovable when he was little, but who knew it was all a disguise. After he grew up, he learned to eat people, and specifically ate his father, and ate him heartily and wholeheartedly.

He cursed Li Yifu, Xu Jingzong, Zhangsun Wuji, Li Ji, and Chu Suiliang. When there was nothing left to curse, he started to curse Lian Yunchu as well.

Anyway, these people are beasts. I treated them with all my heart, but not one of them appreciated it. They all deserve to die, and it would be best if their bones were turned to dust and ashes scattered.

Yun Chu ran three hundred miles in one day. He was so hungry that he was only concerned with filling his stomach. As for what the emperor said, he turned a deaf ear to it and was only concerned with filling his stomach.

"Are you listening to me?"

Li Zhi didn't get a response from Yun Chu, so he got furious and snatched the hoof from Yun Chu's hand and stuffed it into the giant bear's hand.

Yun Chu opened his slick mouth and said, "The emperor has no shortage of hungry soldiers."

After saying that, he glanced at the frightened giant bear, and the giant bear returned the hoof that Li Zhi had stuffed into it to Yun Chu.

Li Zhi was furious and kicked the giant bear on its butt. The giant bear whimpered twice and then lay on the ground consciously.

Li Zhi took better care of this giant bear than a human, especially its two claws, which were no different from human hands. Yun Chu took the hoof and took another bite.

"You're cheating, right?"

"No, I am already a high-ranking official, I am not young anymore, I have a lot of sons and daughters, I can't cheat."

"It seems that you don't have many complaints about what I did this time?"

"When more people at the top die, the people below can quickly make up for it. When more people at the top die, the power of the nobles will be weakened. This is a top-down linkage.

Your Majesty, speaking of which, Chang'an is the one that has benefited the most from this Chang'an cleanup."

Li Zhi dropped the bone in his hand and asked, "What do you mean?"

Yun Chu said: "More than 8,000 people died, and more than 70% of them were scholars, officials, and clerks. Among the scholars cultivated in Chang'an over the years, only a very small number of them can become scholars, officials, and clerks.

It’s not that they are not knowledgeable enough, nor that they don’t have the means, it’s just that there are only so many positions, and before you pull out one carrot, there are several more waiting to be picked nearby.

Now, Your Majesty has pulled out more than 8,000 radishes and killed many radishes waiting to be planted in the pit, causing the radish field to become barren. Of course, the radish field cannot be left barren, and radishes must be planted. However, Your Majesty has pulled out too many radishes from his own field, and there are not so many radishes available at once..."

"So, the new radishes you cultivated in Chang'an can be put into the pit, right?"

Yun Chu smiled and said, "Since I returned to Chang'an, I have not asked about Chang'an's economy. The officials below have begun to complain to me that Chang'an's economic development has come to a standstill. They hope that I can come up with a good way to make Chang'an's economy prosperous as soon as possible, so that Chang'an can cope with the increasing population.

I am not a god. Chang'an is so big that a one cent increase would be almost the tax revenue of a prefecture in the Tang Dynasty. I do have some cleverness, but these economic cleverness are just a small matter to me in a small place like Jinchangfang.

Chang'an, Chang'an, if such a large scale is to have visible development, it needs to make fundamental and major moves. I can't do such a big move, only Your Majesty can do it. "

Li Zhi asked suspiciously, "Are you saying that my killing of 8,000 people in Chang'an not only did not weaken your control over Chang'an, but instead helped you?"

Yun Chu threw away the remains of meat and bones in his hand and said, "How can we make the economy active? There must be liquidity. As long as the economy is flowing, it can benefit many people.

To put it in the simplest terms, your Majesty's action of putting the money from your left pocket into your right pocket will benefit many people in Chang'an.

Not to mention that more than 8,000 people died. Their wealth would naturally not die, but would only start to circulate. As long as the money started to flow, it would pass through the gate of the Chang'an government. The government would earn a sum of money every time it passed the gate.

This is just a correspondence of eating the dead's money.

At the same time, there is also a corresponding relationship of eating living people's money. If more than 8,000 people die, more than 8,000 new people will be replaced. Your Majesty must not underestimate the help that the flow of more than 8,000 people brings to the treasury.

There are only 6,000 residents in Jinchangfang nowadays, but the tax contribution of Jinchangfang to the Tang Dynasty exceeds that of many prefectures in a year, not to mention that more than 8,000 soldiers, officials and clerks are moving this time, which makes a much greater contribution to Chang'an than Jinchangfang.

So, what Your Majesty did in Chang'an this time is equivalent to stirring up a huge wave in the stagnant water of Chang'an. Next, I can use the wave Your Majesty has stirred up to do many things. At least, I can reverse the stagnant economy of Chang'an."

Li Zhi asked doubtfully: "Can killing people also benefit Chang'an's economy?"

Yun Chu smiled and said, "Because Chang'an's politics is closely related to the economy. This is the essence of Political Economy. It will not survive for the sake of Yao, nor will it perish for the sake of Jie. As long as Chang'an, the foundation, is not destroyed, it can absorb morning dew and nectar to thrive, and it can also absorb rotten corpses and rotten mud to take root and sprout. In short, once the pace of progress is started, it will only roll forward."

Li Zhi took a bite of pork knuckle and thought for a while before saying, "It seems that Chang'an is much stronger than I imagined. Is this your confidence in demolishing the city wall?"

Yun Chu said: "The existence of the city wall is not conducive to the economic development of Chang'an, and the city wall itself represents a constraint..."

Li Zhi threw down his trotter and said, "You are all so powerful, where do you put me, the emperor?"

Yun Chu smiled and said, "Chang'an's greatest confidence comes from Your Majesty, and its most solid foundation also comes from Your Majesty. If Your Majesty lives in Daming Palace, then it will be integrated with Chang'an. Your Majesty is Chang'an, and Chang'an is Your Majesty."

Li Zhi said: "Damn it, that's too good to say... I have to think about it carefully, so as not to fall into your trap."

Yun Chu added: "Your Majesty, Daming Palace has the most perfect and solid defense system in the world. At the same time, there is enough space around it for Your Majesty to place the Sixteen Guards."

Li Zhi frowned and said, "The more you talk, the more I feel that this Daming Palace is very similar to Dong Zhuo's Meiwu City. It is said that the guy built many official residences in Meiwu, housed thousands of beauties collected from all over the country, and hoarded a large amount of gold and silver and enough food for 30 years. Every time he returned to Meiwu, Dong Zhuo would have a lot of fun.

However, this guy's ending was not good. He eventually died in Meiwu City.

Oh, oh, oh, I remember now. Dong Zhuo finally died at the hands of Lu Bu, a fierce general who looked very similar to you. Oh, oh, Yun Chu, what is your intention in asking me to move the capital to Daming Palace?"

Seeing Li Zhi's startled expression, Yun Chu sighed and said, "The current atmosphere of our Great Tang is not comparable to that of the late Han Dynasty."

Li Zhi seemed to have caught the loophole in Yun Chu's words, and said excitedly: "Han fell because of its strength!"

Yun Chu said angrily: "At most I can go to Daming Palace to protect His Majesty, right?"

Li Zhi bared his white teeth and laughed, "Lü Bu did the same thing."

Yun Chu was stunned for a moment and said, "Anyway, no matter what I say, Your Majesty will think that I have bad intentions towards you."

Li Zhi laughed and said, "I didn't think so before, but now it's hard to say. After I killed people in Luoyang, Chang'an, and Jinyang, you might think I'm crazy and want to build a strong city to lock me up.

I won't go, no matter what I say, I won't go, I will stay in Jiucheng Palace, waiting for you, a bunch of traitors, to come and assassinate the king."

Ruichun, who had hurried back, had just arrived at Feipu Pavilion to report the situation in Chang'an to the emperor, when he heard the emperor's nonsense and was frightened to death.

Li Zhi glanced at Ruichun who was kneeling on the ground and kowtowing, and said with some annoyance: "Get out."

Upon hearing this, Ruichun knelt down and retreated.

Yun Chu took a sip of the sweet-scented osmanthus fermented glutinous rice and said with a smile: "Ruichun just returned from Chang'an, why don't you listen to his explanation, Your Majesty."

Li Zhi waved his hands and said, "You must have done something to let me down. While I don't know, I can still have a good talk with you to relieve my depression. If Ruichun said something bad to you, tell me, should I kill you or not?
Let us continue to talk about Emperor Xian of Han, Dong Zhuo, and you, Lü Bu."

Seeing that the emperor was in a state of self-abuse, Yun Chu had to continue discussing with Li Zhi how to trap him in the Daming Palace, which was like a Meiwu City, and finally how to take his life, hold Crown Prince Li Hong hostage, and then establish himself as a king in Chang'an, control Hulao Pass, and accept attacks from people all over the world. Yun Chu defeated the seventy-six armies that came to support the king with his supreme courage.

"Yes, you are right. To take Guanzhong, we must take Shuzhong as the foundation, and then take over Longxi, the former territory of the Qin Dynasty. We can send a general to open up the Western Regions and revive Chang'an's commerce. This is the foundation of the emperor.

However, the Queen is not a easy person to deal with. She has Pei Xingjian's help to stabilize the Central Plains. People in Lianghuai, Shandong, and Hebei deeply hate our Li family and may help the Queen.

Xue Rengui's relatives and friends are all in Hedong. With his ability, he can probably carve out a piece of land. This piece of land is not small and can even span the land of Yan and Zhao... Hey, we two are not satisfied with what we said. Come on, call Xue Rengui over."

Yun Chu took the opportunity to say, "At the end of the Han Dynasty, the eunuchs were extremely powerful, so Ruichun, the chief steward of the Hundred Cavalry Division, must come."

So, under Yun Chu's strong suggestion, Ruichun and Xue Rengui had to participate in the Tang Dynasty version of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" board game hosted by Li Zhi himself with bloodshot eyes.

Until dawn, Li Zhi was still in high spirits. The board game he played last night kept his brain running at high speed. Even though he hadn't slept all night, he was still in high spirits, as if he had returned to his youth.

"After all, it would be a bit too thin for four people to discuss together. If Xu Jingzong were to be brought in to play the role of Jia Xu, and Chu Suiliang were to be brought in to play the role of Xun Yu..."

After a night, Ruichun and Xue Rengui, who were originally filled with anger, gradually got into their roles. In their view, although this was a game, it was also a rehearsal of a large-scale military, political, and people's livelihood issue.

The characters in the game gradually became more full-bodied due to a night of discussion. Coupled with the grand scene of heroes competing for supremacy in the late Han Dynasty, once you put yourself in the game, and the fact that all the participants are high-level heroes, the game suddenly became a large-scale government activity that can truly predict the future.

That night, the four men cut the Tang Dynasty into pieces on the table, killing people so much that blood flowed like a river, and not one in a hundred people in the world was left alive.

Even people like Li Zhi, Yun Chu, Rui Chun, and Xue Rengui, who were known for their prolific murders, were horrified by the consequences of the killings.

Li Zhi laughed loudly facing the rising sun. This was a new toy he had discovered. The most important thing was that he was the one who invented this new toy. Under the coercion, Yun Chu, Rui Chun and Xue Rengui had to pay full attention.

There is no way to cheat in the game. Li Zhi is a qualified emperor, Yun Chu and Xue Rengui are both qualified generals, and Ruichun is a very powerful eunuch.

Once someone lets the opponent win, it will be easy for him to be noticed by the other three people, and finally be labeled as a flatterer in the eyes of the emperor. Yun Chu and Xue Rengui can only deal with it with all their strength under the rules planned by the emperor. Once they fail, they will be regarded as incompetent in the eyes of the emperor.

They said they were playing the game all night, but in reality the four of them were scheming against each other the entire night.

At this moment, Yun Chu was looking forward to playing this game with the emperor, empress, prince, and the famous ministers and brave generals of the Tang Dynasty...

The Tang Dynasty simply could not withstand large-scale killing. If the emperor continued to kill, the Tang Dynasty, which had just been reunited, would be torn apart again.

Yun Chu didn't want to see such a scene. He felt that he had contributed to the current prosperity of the Tang Dynasty.

If the emperor could replace the people killed in reality with soybeans, mung beans and red beans on the table, it might not be a blessing for the Tang Dynasty.

(End of this chapter)