Chapter 64 Let's all join in the chaos of the Five Barbarian Tribes!

Zhuge Liang's fingers trembled slightly, the yellowed pages rustling under his fingertips. The office fell silent; even the three little children held their breath.

"Sima Zhao... assassinated the emperor in the street?"

The whisper was like a thunderclap. Yuchi Jingde and Qin Shubao exchanged glances; history, after all, could not be hidden. The three children stared wide-eyed, and Xiao Liu unconsciously moved closer to Zhuge Liang's legs.

The ink on the paper seemed to dance. Zhuge Liang saw the twenty-year-old Wei Emperor Cao Mao, clad in armor and wielding a sword, leading hundreds of servants towards the Sima residence. The young emperor's roar seemed to pierce through the paper: "Sima Zhao's intentions are obvious to everyone!" Then came Cheng Ji's spear, its cold light flashing.

The sound of a spear tip piercing through a brocade robe seemed to echo in Zhuge Liang's ears. Before his eyes appeared the pool of glaring blood on the imperial road in Luoyang, where the young emperor's corpse was dragged like a rag, leaving long bloody marks on the bluestone slabs.

"In the first year of the Tai Shi era, Sima Yan usurped the throne from the Wei dynasty and established himself as emperor..."

Zhuge Liang saw Emperor Wu of Jin, indulging in a life of debauchery amidst wine pools and meat forests; he saw the imperial road paved with sandalwood; he saw the absurd edict that banned marriage throughout the land in order to select concubines. Amidst the rumble of sheep-drawn carriages awaiting imperial favor, the iron cavalry of the Qiang and Hu tribes in the northwest were gathering.

"The reign of Taikang?" Zhuge Liang suddenly sneered, snapping his feather fan shut. "What a fine reign of Taikang!"

He read about Emperor Hui of Jin, Sima Zhong, who famously asked, "Why don't they eat meat porridge?" He read about the scandalous affair of Jia Nanfeng, who had corrupted the palace. He read about the coral tree that Shi Chong and Wang Kai smashed while competing in extravagance—those fragments seemed to pierce Zhuge Liang's eyes. At that very moment, a severe drought struck Bingzhou in the north, and the tragedy of cannibalism was unfolding.

An emperor who neither cherishes his reputation nor cares for his people, who gains power but fails to govern it, will inevitably lead to chaos sooner or later.

The War of the Eight Princes...

The ink on the paper suddenly turned crimson. Zhuge Liang seemed to see the princes of the Sima family driving their barbarian cavalry to fight across the Central Plains; he saw Sima Ying, the Prince of Chengdu, roasting Sima Yi, the Prince of Changsha, alive; he saw Sima Yue, the Prince of Donghai, leading Emperor Hui of Jin's personal expedition, turn into a farce. Ironically, it was Liu Yuan of the Xiongnu who ultimately ended this internal strife with his curved sword.

That's ridiculous.

In the fifth year of the Yongjia era, the Han-Zhao army captured Luoyang...

Zhuge Liang's hands suddenly trembled violently. He saw the Xiongnu cavalry galloping across the ruins of the Imperial Academy, saw the bamboo slips bearing the teachings of sages being thrown into the fire, and saw the heads of princes and ministers hanging on the twelve gates of Luoyang. What terrified him most was the captured Emperor Huai of Jin, Sima Chi—the third emperor of the Western Jin Dynasty—who was ultimately used as a wine-pouring servant by Liu Cong in Pingyang.

What a disgrace!

In the fourth year of Jianxing (221 AD), Chang'an fell...

The writing on the paper began to blur. The humiliation of Emperor Min of Jin, Sima Ye, surrendering with his bare chest and holding the jade disc in his mouth, made Zhuge Liang abruptly close his eyes. But he could still see—he could still see the seventeen-year-old emperor being escorted to Pingyang, being used like livestock to wash horses and carry halberds, and finally being poisoned at a banquet.

The establishment of the Eastern Jin Dynasty should have brought hope, but Zhuge Liang saw instead the rebellions of Wang Dun and Su Jun, Huan Wen's arrogant statement that "he will neither leave a good name for posterity nor a bad name for ten thousand years," and the decadent life in Jiankang during the reign of Sima Daozi and his son. Meanwhile, in the north, Ran Min's "Order to Kill the Hu" and the revenge of the Murong Xianbei turned the Central Plains into a river of blood.

When Zhuge Liang read about Xie An's composed performance of the game of chess after the victory report arrived at the Battle of Fei River, he suddenly slammed the historical record shut. His chest heaved violently, and the veins in his usually steady hands bulged.

"Prime Minister?" Jiang Ge carefully handed over a cup of tea. An old man shouldn't get angry.

Zhuge Liang did not answer. He stood up and walked to the window, gazing at the gradually brightening sky in the east. Three hundred years of bloody history surged in his mind: the cities trampled by the barbarian cavalry, the people captured, the gentry weeping on the banks of the Yangtze River looking north... The culprit behind all this was none other than the descendant of the man he had once confronted at Wuzhang Plains.

"What a Sima Zhongda..." Zhuge Liang's voice was so soft it was almost inaudible, "Is this the world you wanted?"

He gained the world but felt ashamed towards the people.

Seeing Zhuge Liang's expression, even though Zhou Yu hadn't looked, he knew that Sima Yi had done something wicked again. He suddenly slammed his fist on the table and shouted, "I'm going back now to kill that old scoundrel!" His white robes billowed with anger.

I told you long ago that people with wolfish ambitions should not be allowed to live.

"It's too late." Zhuge Liang's voice seemed to come from a great distance. "In the twenty-fourth year of Jian'an, Sima Yi had already begun his scheme."

They started planning so early and were so patient.

Zheng He silently handed over a new bamboo slip: "This is the population statistic from the Sima family's reign..."

Words are insufficient to express the cruelty this history inflicted on the people; only numbers, these cold but life-threatening numbers, can express it nakedly.

Zhuge Liang's gaze fell on the numbers: the national population was 16 million in the first year of the Taikang era, but by the time of the Yongjia Rebellion, it had dwindled to less than 8 million. His hand suddenly fell limply to his side, and the bamboo slips clattered to the ground.

"Nine out of ten houses are empty..." he murmured, "Is this the prosperous era that the Sima family brought to China?"

Little Liu timidly tugged at Zhuge Liang's sleeve: "Sir..."

He had never seen his husband so distraught before, and instinctively wanted to comfort him.

Zhuge Liang looked down into the child's pure eyes, then suddenly knelt on one knee, placing his hands on the young prince's shoulders: "Your Highness, if you become a ruler in the future, remember—"

His voice choked for a moment, then became incredibly firm: "I'd rather be an incompetent ruler like Liu Shan than a Sima Zhong!"

"Prime Minister..."

Jiang Ge was about to dissuade him. No sooner had he spoken than Zhou Yu, unable to contain his curiosity, strode forward, snatched the historical materials from Zheng He's hands, and scanned the pages with lightning speed.

He dared not watch TV dramas, but he still had to read historical materials, and he wanted to read them clearly and thoroughly.

"The War of the Eight Princes?" His long, slender fingers clenched the paper tightly, his knuckles turning white. "The Sima family's descendants killed each other, causing turmoil in the Central Plains?"

I originally thought that the historical records after Sima Yi gained power would be praises of the Sima family, but I never expected that the world would be in chaos.

Zheng He nodded heavily and pointed to several other sheets of paper. Zhou Yu took them and saw the four characters "Five Barbarian Invasions" written on them. He was immediately struck dumb. He staggered back half a step, his white robe brushing against the table and knocking over an oil lamp.

"The Xiongnu, Xianbei, Jie, Qiang, Di..." Zhou Yu's voice grew softer and softer, until it was almost squeezed out through clenched teeth, "What a Sima family, what a 'world-conquering' family!"

He was indeed a despicable person. Cao Cao was also a despicable person. Why didn't he notice that there was a wolf beside him?

Zhuge Liang had regained his composure, though the veins on the back of his hand holding the feather fan were faintly visible. He slowly walked to the window, gazing at the gradually brightening sky in the east: "The Yongjia Rebellion, the southward migration of the gentry..." Suddenly he turned, pointing the feather fan directly north, "The Sima clan usurped the imperial power for only a few decades, yet they plunged China into more than three hundred years of decline!"

The Sima family are the biggest sinners!

"Sir!" Little Liu suddenly rushed forward and hugged Zhuge Liang's leg, his little face full of panic as he looked up. Zhuge Liang then realized that he had lost his composure and quickly bent down to pick up the child.

Zhou Yu suddenly slammed the document in his hand heavily on the table, causing the pen, ink, paper, and inkstone to jump: "If I had known this would happen, I should have—" He stopped abruptly, his handsome face slightly distorted with anger.

Sima Yi was killed.

"What should we do?" Zhuge Liang gently patted Liu Ju's back, his tone suddenly becoming unusually calm. "Does Gongjin intend to follow Wu Zixu's example and dig up a grave to whip a corpse? It's a pity that Sima Yi's tomb is not here."

Such a joke caused the temperature inside the room to drop sharply. Yuchi Jingde instinctively shielded Li Chengqian and his brother behind him, while Zhou Yu, already furious, couldn't stand such a joke.

Seeing this, Jiang Ge quickly tried to smooth things over: "Please calm down, both of you. These are, after all, just—"

“History that didn’t happen.” Zheng He suddenly interjected, pointing to the last few lines of the historical record, “But here, everything is possible to change.”

Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu simultaneously looked up, their gazes flashing like lightning as they fixed on Zheng He. Zheng He, neither humble nor arrogant, unfurled a hand-drawn map: "The main cause of the Five Barbarian Invasions, aside from the internal strife within the Jin Dynasty, was the already established migration of the barbarians into China since the end of the Han Dynasty." He traced his finger across Bingzhou and Liangzhou, "If we could solve this problem at its source..."

"Let's all get to work; Zheng He doesn't want to be the only one doing so much work." "The military-agricultural colony system," Zhuge Liang suddenly said, his eyes gleaming. "I've been experimenting with it in Longyou for many years, originally as part of a strategy for the Northern Expeditions." He pointed heavily on the map with his feather fan. "If it were extended to the border prefectures, allowing Han people to settle on the frontier..."

Zhou Yu suddenly sneered, "Why bother with all this?" He drew his sword, its cold light reflecting on everyone's faces. "The barbarians fear power but do not cherish virtue. They should emulate the Marquis of Champion!"

Drive out the barbarians and kill them all.

Upon hearing this, Huo Qubing looked up abruptly, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes. He hadn't expected the seemingly gentle and refined Zhou Gongjin to possess such courage. Just as he was about to speak, he saw Zhuge Liang shake his head: "Gongjin, you are mistaken. Conquest is never a long-term solution. When Cao Cao moved the five tribes of the Xiongnu into the pass, he sowed the seeds of disaster."

"Then what do you think?" Zhou Yu's fierce expression remained, and he wouldn't listen to anyone else's words.

Zhuge Liang did not rush to answer, but instead turned to the three children: "If you were to deal with the border troubles caused by the barbarians, what would you do?"

Li Chengqian blinked, but his childish voice was unusually clear: "Move the Rong people. Let them stay in their homeland and send good officials to educate them."

The Tang Dynasty always had a broad mind and didn't care whether someone was a non-Han or Xianbei. Once they came, they were all Tang citizens. They were confident and open-minded. This was a principle that even the young Li Chengqian understood.

Li Chengqian continued, "We also need to trade! My father said that the Turks love the silk and porcelain from the Central Plains the most."

"Qingque is going to give them something delicious!" The chubby boy held up half a piece of sesame candy, with crumbs falling everywhere.

Morning light streamed through the window into the office, and the innocent words of the three children eased the tense atmosphere that had just been tense. Zhuge Liang laughed loudly, his long fingers gently patting the heads of Liu Ju, Li Chengqian, and Li Tai one by one: "Excellent! This is the best strategy for long-term stability."

When he turned to Zhou Yu, his eyes flashed with sharpness: "Gongjin, would you be willing to join forces with me to try out the strategy of settling and relocating barbarians in Songyang County?" He tapped the map on the table with his feather fan: "Settle the barbarians in the wasteland north of the county and teach them to cultivate the land; let the Han people live in the south of the city and learn to ride and shoot."

Zhou Yu's lips curled into a proud smile as he casually plucked the strings of his zither, the clear, melodious sound echoing in the room. "Perfect timing to let Sima Yi see what the true way of governing a country is." He narrowed his phoenix eyes slightly. "However, Kongming, your 'relocation of the Rong' policy might turn Songyang County into a second Hexi Corridor?"

"That's not all." Zhuge Liang unfurled his feather fan. "I also intend to establish a 'Han-Hu School' here, so that children of all ethnicities can study together."

Suddenly, Xiao Liu raised his hand: "Sir! I want to go to school too!"

"Me too!" Li Chengqian pulled Li Tai forward, the chubby boy with half a piece of sesame candy in his mouth, nodding along vaguely.

Looking at the group of historical figures who had suddenly become so energetic, Jiang Ge sighed and rubbed his forehead, "Great, Songyang County is going to become a testing ground for the new policies."

Let's roll it up together!

Zheng He, who was behind the scenes pushing Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu to join forces, secretly revealed a satisfied smile upon seeing this scene.

-----------------------

Author's Note: I'm late [please forgive me [please]]