Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 89: Su Cho on Greed (Part )
Henan Prefecture was still the same. When Su Ze and Su Chao arrived at the Henan Prefecture government office from the parade ground outside the city, lights were lit in the corner towers around the entire government office, and patrol officers holding torches were guarding the entrance and exit of the government office.

These people all knew Su Cho, and they all knew that he was a popular figure around Henan Yin Li Daoyuan. They checked his token and let him pass.

Henan Prefecture covers a very large area and one cannot ride a horse to enter the prefecture government office, so Su Ze started chatting with Su Cho.

"Ling Chuo, how is the case of the Rourou King going?"

Su Chuo sighed and said, "The two assassins were identified by the officials of the Siyi Hall as the confidants of the Rouran King, but they refused to admit that they came to assassinate the Qinghe King, and Li Dafu refused to torture them, so the case has not been closed yet."

The development of the matter was exactly as Su Ze had expected. Although his plan was clever, it could not explain one thing: the motive of King Rouran to assassinate King Qinghe was actually very weak.

Li Daoyuan was a very upright person. Naturally, he was unwilling to use torture to extract a confession in such a serious case. Moreover, these two men were assassins with poison pills in their mouths, so it was difficult to get a confession from them.

Su Ze also sighed silently in his heart. At that time, he chose Li Daoyuan to be part of the plan because he was upright and fearless of power. He would not be afraid of King Rourou because of the situation in the court. But it was also because of this that the case could not be resolved now.

Su Cho added: "I heard from my brother that the root cause of this case is that the court has not yet reached a conclusion on how to deal with the Rouran King."

Su Ze raised his head. Su Chao's elder brother Su Liang was indeed a capable man. No wonder people at that time called the two brothers "the two Su's". Su Liang was also very accurate in his views on issues.

It's a pity that Su Liang followed the wrong person when he entered the official career. Later, after Xiao Baoyin fell, Su Liang was not implicated and killed because of his good popularity. However, he was far away from the official career and there is no other record of his achievements in history books.

From this point of view, Su Liang's ability may not be inferior to Su Chao's.

In fact, the case of the Rouran King was delayed because the Northern Wei upper echelons had not yet decided on the policy for dealing with the Rouran. If the Northern Wei court really wanted to abandon the Rouran King, there would be a thousand reasons to deal with him even if he had not made any mistakes.

On the contrary, as long as the Ruru King still has value, this case cannot be concluded immediately.

Li Daoyuan's caution was objectively in line with the trend of the upper echelons of the court, which may be the reason why Li Daoyuan was able to be promoted.

Both of them were silent. Smart people could see the internal and external troubles in the Northern Wei Dynasty, but the young Su Cho could not see the direction as to where to go.

Su Ze changed the subject and thought of a question about employing people. He asked, "Ling Chuo, I have a retainer who is greedy but talented. How can I make good use of him?"

Su Chao thought for a moment and said seriously, "Since Brother Su asked, I have two methods, the magic and the Tao."

"What is a technique?"

Su Cho said: "The natural technique is to use greed and then abandon it. If you use greed, your subordinates will work harder to serve their lord. And if the lord has evidence of corruption, he can punish them at any time to appease public opinion and calm public anger."

Su Ze asked: "Is it the same as the Battle of Guandu when Emperor Wu of Wei borrowed the head of the grain officer?"

Su Chao nodded and said, "Brother Su is indeed extraordinary. Emperor Wu of Wei is a master at controlling people with magic."

"What about the other one?"

Su Cho said: "To govern people with the Way, greed should not be allowed. The first criterion for selecting talents should be 'purity'. Purity of mind does not mean not being greedy for money, but to make the mind clear and peaceful, and the will calm and tranquil." "Compared with incompetent and non-greedy people, capable people who are greedy can certainly do more things, but they can also cause greater harm."

"If you use greed just because you value talent, you may gain temporary benefits, but it will corrupt the morale of your subordinates. Even the clean ones will become corrupted. This is a loss of the greater for the smaller."

"People with high moral character but poor ability can still be trained to be officials and do things, but people with corrupt moral character cannot be changed. As long as there is a slight opportunity, they will take advantage of others, and the ones who suffer are those who are lower than them."

Su Chuo bowed and said, "So Brother Su asked me, as a lord, if you completely reject greedy people and don't employ them, that's unrealistic. There are limited talents in this world, and some of them have more or less defects. If you don't employ them because of their defects, that's too pedantic. Besides, it's hard to judge people, and when you employ people, you don't know whether they are honest or greedy."

"But I still believe that to purify the world, we still need to use some people of noble character. Even if greedy people have talents, they should not be allowed to hold high positions. We should not use cruel officials to make money like Emperor Wu of Han did. Otherwise, the people will suffer."

Su Chao suddenly stopped talking, realizing that what Su Ze was discussing with him was only the issue of employing people, but he had dragged it to the issue of governing the country.

He quickly said, "Brother Su, I am only good at talking about how to control and employ people."

Su Ze held Su Chuo's hand and said, "With Ling Chuo's talent, he can be ranked among the Lantai. If there is a prime minister like Ling Chuo, it will be a blessing for the world!"

Lantai is an institution for book collection in ancient times. Starting from the Shangshu institution in the Western Han Dynasty, Lantai was the office of the prime minister. Su Ze, a mere commander of the Tunqiying, praised Su Cho for being ranked in Lantai, but Su Cho did not think there was anything strange about it. Instead, he felt that Su Ze's praise was very heavy.

Su Ze mocked himself and said, "The affairs of Lantai are not something that a mere warrior like me can judge. Lingchuo should just treat it as a joke."

Su Cho said, "I don't know why, but I am happier when Brother Su praises me than when Lord Li praises me."

"Brother Su, let's go quickly. The Ming Mansion and the distinguished guests are waiting for us."

The two men quickened their pace and arrived at the Mingtang where the governor of Henan Prefecture met guests.

In fact, most of the Henan Yins were unwilling to meet guests in the Mingtang, as the Mingtang was leaky and could be easily eavesdropped by the clerks in the hall. In the past, many Henan Yins met guests in the private residence area behind the government office to discuss confidential matters.

However, Li Daoyuan and Su Cho had said that "there is nothing that cannot be told to others", and insisted on meeting guests and discussing official business only in the Mingtang.

Su Ze walked into the Mingtang and saw a middle-aged round-faced scholar sitting at the same table with Li Daoyuan. He was much more relaxed than Li Daoyuan who was always tense, and smiled as he looked at Su Chao and Su Ze who came in.

Li Daoyuan saw Su Ze coming in and introduced him to him:

"Su Ze, this is the Prince of Guangyang who was just transferred back to Luoyang from his post as the governor of Sizhou. He also served as the governor of Henan and is now the Minister of the Secretariat. Why don't you hurry up and pay your respects to the king!"

Su Ze looked at the round-faced scholar in surprise. This seemingly amiable middle-aged man turned out to be the most capable member of the royal family in the late Northern Wei Dynasty - Prince Guangyang Yuan Shen!

You should know that the Six Garrisons Rebellion in history was actually divided into two rebellions. The first Six Garrisons Rebellion was led by Han Baling, the King of Liu, and was suppressed by the troops led by Yuan Shen, the King of Guangyang!

Completed 8k today, please subscribe


(End of this chapter)