Chapter 46: The First Words

  Lu Min walked in with a gloomy face, sat down on the mat without a word. Liu Xiu and Liu Bei exchanged a glance, not daring to be careless, hastily went forward to greet him, sat properly beside him, and carefully asked: "Sir, have you had dinner?"

  Lu Min waved his hand: "I've already had dinner at Governor Cui's place, you don't need to bother anymore."

  "Uh-huh." Liu Xiu responded with a murmur, and after a moment, he asked again, "Isn't the situation going smoothly?"

  Lu Min raised his head and glanced at Liu Xiu, with a hint of displeasure in his eyes. As a mere clerk, Liu Xiu's role was only to copy and write miscellaneous documents, and it wasn't suitable for him to ask such questions on his own initiative. If it were Lu Min's father, Lu Zhi, he would have probably scolded Liu Xiu on the spot. However, Lu Min was not as strict as his father, and since Liu Xiu was only slightly younger than himself, he couldn't bring himself to reprimand him. He simply furrowed his brow, hummed in response, and didn't provide a detailed answer.

  Lu Min's reaction did not exceed Liu Xiu's expectations, he just smacked his lips, with a timid look, and said in a low voice: "Sir, the student has something to say, I don't know if it should be said or not."

  Lu Min's eyes flashed, just about to get angry, but met Liu Xiu's calm gaze. Suddenly, a thought flashed through his mind: although he was not a native of the county town, his father Liu Yuanqi was also a small landowner in Zhuo County. Just now, when Li Ding mentioned him, his tone was quite polite, and it seemed that he had praised Liu Xiu one or two sentences. He might understand some things that he didn't understand himself.

  "There are things that should be said and shouldn't be said, let's just talk about it and discuss it together." Lu Min stroked his short beard under his chin and said with some reserve.

  Liu Xiu let out a quiet sigh. Although the Lu family was a humble household in Zhuo County, Lu Zhi's current status was different now, and Lu Min also had some pride with this mindset. Going to negotiate with those local tyrants would certainly not yield good results. He asked on purpose because his heart disease was gone, no longer worried about revealing anything, and on the other hand, he wanted to follow Lu Zhi to Luoyang, so he must make Lu Zhi think he had utilizable value.

  "Sir, I think you have a different starting point," Liu Xiu said slowly and cautiously, sounding both prudent and confident. Lu Min blinked her eyes and listened quietly to the next sentence. Liu Xiu continued: "What you mean, sir, is probably focusing on Youzhou, focusing on Hebei. Now, among the seven counties of Youzhou, six counties are already difficult to defend, leaving only Quyang County as a place where the Hu people have not entered. If time permits, Quyang County will inevitably fall, and once Quyang County falls, Hebei will be unstable, so you strongly advocate for preparing for battle in Quyang County and ensuring that Hebei is not lost."

  Lu Min nodded, putting away the indifference on his face, and also put down the hand that was twirling his whiskers. Although these views were not brilliant to him, but for a young man who had never been out of the house, it was rare to see someone think of this point, especially when so many heroes in the places he saw earlier couldn't think of it.

  "While the families in Zhuo County are different." Liu Xiuxiu was very confident and even a bit arrogant about his calligraphy and painting, but when it came to politics, he was clueless. The first time he expressed his opinion, he had to speak in front of Lu Min, talking about things from the Han Dynasty, although he had done some homework beforehand and learned from Mao Zong and Gongsun Zan, he still lacked confidence.

  Lu Min saw Liu Xiu being a bit tense and silently smiled, encouraging him: "What's different?"

  "They first consider their own industries." Liu Xiu's face turned slightly red, he looked at Lu Min with gratitude and continued: "If you want to fight a war, you have to spend money. If it's spending money to protect their own homes, they might not have any objections, but now the Hu people haven't harmed them, so asking them to spend money preparing for battle is naturally met with some hesitation." He pondered for a moment and then said: "The villagers, wanting them to have the same vision as Mr. Shi, is probably too much to ask."

  Lu Min nodded silently and let out a soft sigh: "You're right. It's not just hesitation, it's unanimous opposition."

  Liu Xiu was also somewhat unexpected, he only estimated that there might be opposing opinions, but did not expect the opposition to be so great.

  "The industries in the city are slightly better, they have some concerns but do not directly refuse. Those outside the city are different, they worry that once a fight breaks out, the city can be protected, while those outside will inevitably suffer from the barbarians' poison and strongly oppose it. At present, no one dares to speak out against it, I estimate that only the Xi Mao family may do so." Lu Min let out a long sigh: "Everyone sees private interests but forgets public justice, the local heroes all have such insight, how can my Great Han's territory not be lost?"

  Liu Xiu was speechless, and Lu Min's words had some bookish tone. Your Lu family has only a few acres of land, when the Hu people come, you hide in the city, if nothing happens to you, there won't be too much loss. After the battle is over, you have merit, maybe with an imperial edict, your whole family will move to Luoyang. But others are different, people can run away, valuables can be taken away, what about houses? If they were burned down by the Hu people, that would be a huge loss. Not to mention other things, just talking about my family's courtyard, although it is only a small three-entry courtyard, it is still a considerable wealth. If it was burned down by the Hu people, do you have reconstruction or resettlement?

  These words were apparently useless to Lu Min, he must have said that you are also seeing private benefits and forgetting public justice, and should look at the big picture, don't be limited by some personal losses, but when will the big picture take care of the ordinary people.

  "Sir, I think these principles are not something those people can understand." Liu Xiu felt a bit awkward, if he wasn't determined to leave Zhuo County and travel through two thousand years, with some sense of the bigger picture, he probably wouldn't have said: "The only ones who can see things from a broad perspective like you, sir, are Governor Shi and Governor Ta. Only by convincing them will it be possible to convince those people."

  Lu Min let out a dry laugh and shook his head: "Do you think I don't know this principle? I just discussed it with the Governor for a long time, and that's what we decided. However, the Governor is determined to appease them and doesn't have the heart to fight the Hu people. As for the Prefect, he didn't even show up, citing illness and saying he would follow the Governor's orders." Lu Min shook his head again and sighed: "The Governor is a scholar who wants to appease the Hu people with good intentions, although it's a bit one-sided. The Prefect's family is in Taiyuan, thousands of miles away, and no matter how fiercely the Hu people riot, they won't affect his family business. He just wants to finish his three-year term and be transferred elsewhere, so he doesn't have the heart to do these things. If we really go to war with the Hu people, if we win, his merit will be limited, but if we lose, he'll be held responsible."

  Liu Xiu furrowed his brow, recalling the disdain with which Gongsun Zan had mentioned Governor Liu Yu. Lu Min was a scholar, and that Liu Yu was even more of a scholar, yet he was bent on appeasing the Hu people. If they were really able to be appeased, wouldn't eleven out of twelve counties in Youzhou become a playground for the Hu people, who would come every winter to plunder? But compared to Liu Yu, that dog fart of a governor was even more outrageous - as a high-ranking official, he only looked out for his own interests and didn't consider the bigger picture at all. If a governor didn't think about the bigger picture, how could you expect local officials to do so? It was simply laughable.

  He glanced at Lu Min and thought to himself: Since you already know all this, it's even more meaningless to blame those powerful families.

  Lu Min felt depressed and sat there silently, he didn't expect to hear any valuable advice from Liu Xiu either. He was willing to talk to Liu Xiu for two reasons: one was that he wasn't feeling well in his heart and wanted to pour out his feelings to someone; the other was to test Liu Xiu's insight and see if there was a possibility of further development. From what he could see, Liu Xiu was still one of the better ones among this batch of students, not necessarily brilliant but at least willing to think.

  "I have an idea," said Liu Bei, who had been silent all along.

  Lu Min looked at him and said, "Speak."

  "There are those who seek profit, and those who avoid harm." Liu Bei looked at Lu Min with some embarrassment, then at Liu Xiu, his face slightly tense and red: "They don't want to prepare for war because they're afraid of suffering losses and losing their current comfort. But if the Hu people are already going to attack, their comfort will be hard to maintain, and their interests may also suffer significant losses. Can they still think this way?"

  Lu Min furrowed her brow: "What are you talking nonsense about? When did the Hu people ever attack?"

  Liu Bei smiled slightly: "The border often has Hu people appearing, do they have a plan to attack, are the attackers affiliated with the Hu or Xianbei people? Those people don't know where they come from, as long as the government says so, why wouldn't they believe it?"

  Lu Min looked at Liu Bei with some displeasure. After a moment's thought, Liu Xiu understood what Liu Bei meant, but he felt that this plan sounded good but was extremely risky to implement. If discovered, the person who came up with the idea would be scolded to death, and might even have their ancestral grave dug up. Moreover, Lu Min was an honest and upright man, and if nothing unexpected happened, he probably wouldn't adopt such a sinister plan. Liu Bei's suggestion would only give him a bad impression.