Chapter 396 Cui Shao's Choice! (Thanks to the book friend Prime Minister for the reward!)
In the Cui family compound in Guangning Prefecture, Cui Shao was practicing his calligraphy in the study with great interest.

As a well-read Jinshi of the Great Zhou Dynasty, Cui Shao always believed that the handwriting reflects the person, which made him particularly fond of calligraphy. Calligraphy became one of the few pastimes in his life.
As Cui Shao wrote, the brush moved rapidly on the white paper, and soon the four characters "Heaven rewards hard work" appeared on the paper.

I have to say that Cui Shao's calligraphy is of very high quality. These four characters are written with strong, vigorous and powerful strokes. At first glance, you can feel a surge of vigorous momentum.

Cui Shao showed a slight smile on his face and seemed to be very satisfied with the calligraphy he had just written.

"Da da!"

At this moment, there were two knocks on the door. Cui Shao said without looking up:
"come in!"

With Cui Shao's permission, Cui Zibo walked in from outside. Seeing that it was his son, Cui Shao, who was in a good mood, did not wait for him to report anything, but pointed at the calligraphy on the table and said to Cui Zibo:
"Zi Bo, you came just in time. How about taking a look at these words?"

Although the old father did not say that the words were written by him, Cui Zibo knew what he meant by looking at the ink marks on the paper that had not yet completely dried. He also knew what his father liked, and immediately praised:

"These characters are light in horizontal direction and heavy in vertical direction, upright, broad and vigorous! They have the charm of Mr. Yan Zhenqing!"

Hearing his son say that his calligraphy looks like Yan Zhenqing's, Cui Shao's expression became even more joyful. He has liked Yan Zhenqing's calligraphy since he was a teenager. Later, after his family came to power, in order to satisfy his personal preferences, he even spent a huge amount of money to buy several authentic works of Yan Zhenqing. Whenever he had free time, he would take them out to appreciate and copy...
As the saying goes, hard work pays off. Over the past few decades, Cui Shao is proud of his calligraphy, which has reached half the level of Yan Zhenqing.

After being happy for a while, Cui Shao ordered the people around him to frame the calligraphy. He wanted to hang it in his study. After doing this, Cui Shao remembered that Cui Zibo might have come to him to report something important, so he collected his thoughts and looked at Cui Zibo and asked:

"What happened?"

"Yes! It's a good thing!" Cui Zibo nodded and explained:
"There's news from Uncle Guang, saying that Ye Mingsheng may have gone insane, and he has appointed Tanzheng as the deputy envoy of the Salt Transport Department, Cui Hong as the prefect of Changqing Prefecture, and Liu Renchuan as the assistant judge of Xuantu Prefecture..."

Cui Zibo mentioned eleven appointments in a row. He was getting happier and happier as he spoke. However, when Cui Shao heard what he said, his face gradually became gloomy. No matter whether it was Tan Zheng, Cui Hong, Liu Renchuan, or other people mentioned by Cui Zibo, they all had a close relationship with the Cui family. They were either old friends or relatives of the Cui family, or they simply had the surname Cui!

After saying these appointments, Cui Zibo looked at Cui Shao, whose face was already gloomy, and asked in surprise:

"Father, those who have been promoted are all from our Cui family. Why don't you look very happy?"

Seeing that Cui Zibo had not yet realized the stakes involved and was still gloating, Cui Shao could not help but angrily rebuked:
"What are you thinking? This is Ye Mingsheng's evil plan!"

Although he didn't know what Cui Shao meant by this, Cui Zi Bo was very tactful and lowered his head when looking at the furious Cui Shao.

Looking at Cui Zibo who was still confused and only lowered his head, Cui Shao became even more angry and continued to curse:

“If I die one day, the Cui family will be run by idiots like you. I’m afraid that Ye Mingsheng will sell out the family and they will still be counting money for him. This huge family business will collapse and fall apart…”

"Ye Mingsheng, this little wolf cub, is playing a trick to sow discord between us and the Gongsun and Yun families!"

Cui Shao directly pointed out that Cui Zibo was just stupid, and he gradually realized it and said in disbelief:
"Father, are you saying that Ye Mingsheng wants to use this official position to cause a conflict between us and the Gongsun and Yun families?"

Seeing that his own son was not hopelessly stupid, Cui Shao felt a little more comforted and patiently taught him:
"Why else do you think Ye Mingsheng would do this? Do you really think he has a change of heart?"

"Think carefully about it. He asked Tan Zheng to be the deputy envoy of the Salt Transport Bureau. What is the Salt Transport Bureau? Who is in charge of the salt industry in Liaoyang?"

Following Cui Shao's lead, Cui Zibo blurted out, "The Yun family! More than half of Liaoyang's salt industry belongs to them!"

“Think about it again. The Changqing Prefecture that Cui Hong went to is the territory of the Gongsun family. The dozen or so people appointed by Ye Mingsheng all have vicious intentions. He wants our Cui family to become the target of public criticism in Liaoyang, and then use this to dismember the ties between our major families…”

At this point, Cui Shao couldn't help but sigh and said with some emotion:

"First it was the disarmament case, and now it's killing three men with two peaches. Ye Mingsheng's schemes are really linked together, one after another. In terms of political means, Ye Mingsheng is much better than Song Wenhui, a reckless man who only knows how to kill and assassinate!"

Hearing his father's sigh, Cui Zibo pondered for a while and said unconvincedly:

"Father, since we know this is Ye Mingsheng's evil plan, why don't we just let our people refuse to take the position? As long as our people don't take the position, they won't infringe on the interests of other families, and Ye Mingsheng's evil plan will fail, right?"

Seeing Cui Zibo put it so simply, Cui Shao shook his head and said with a wry smile:

"It's not as simple as you say! Life is only a few decades long, how important is a chance for promotion in the officialdom?

"How many people have worked hard for more than ten years just to get promoted, make money and bring glory to their family, but they are still standing still. Now the opportunity has come. You let our people reject Ye Mingsheng's appointment, which is almost the same as killing people's parents and taking away their wives and children!"

"Ye Mingsheng's move is not a conspiracy, it is an open conspiracy! If I don't step forward to suppress the matter, our Cui family will be the target of public criticism among the aristocratic families, and the previous cooperation against Ye Mingsheng will not have any results.

“If I suppress the matter by force, the people in our Cui family will be in turmoil. Even if everyone doesn’t say it openly, they will resent me in their hearts...”

"No matter what I do, Ye Mingsheng's evil plan has already succeeded," Cui Shao said dimly: If Cui Shao was confident at the beginning that he could form alliances, unite several major families, and some local generals to turn Ye Mingsheng into another Song Wenhui, then now under Ye Mingsheng's successive schemes, Cui Shao's original firm confidence has begun to waver.

Cui Zibo thought for a while and still said:
"In that case, father, we can tell the Gongsun and Yun families about Ye Mingsheng's scheme. I believe they will understand that this is Ye Mingsheng's scheme to divide and destroy our cooperation!"

Cui Shao shook his head and said:

"The old guys from the Yun and Gongsun families are not fools. They can certainly see Ye Mingsheng's intentions, but Ye Mingsheng chose a very good time. It's just the time when we are plotting to stop him from reducing his military!"

"So the Yun family and Gongsun are probably also worried that we have reached some kind of secret agreement with Ye Mingsheng to sell them out. So in exchange for benefits, Ye Mingsheng promoted so many of our people!"

"Just wait and see! In three days at the shortest, or seven days at the longest, the Yun family and the Gongsun family will definitely send people to look for Ye Mingsheng!" Cui Shao analyzed calmly:
Cui Zibo felt lost immediately after hearing his father's analysis. Although he had no choice but to accept that his beloved woman was snatched away by Ye Mingsheng, this poor boy from a poor countryside relative of the Cui family, who he once looked down upon, had suddenly become his future lord as the governor of Liaoyang.

But Cui Zibo's inner world is in pain. He is unwilling to accept the current situation, and this time the aristocratic families' united action against Ye Mingsheng made him see a glimmer of hope. However, before this hope can take root, he will be ruthlessly crushed by Ye Mingsheng...

Compared to his son who was lost and in pain at this time, Cui Shao felt more helpless in his heart. He had to make a choice between maintaining the alliance of aristocratic families and the stability of the Cui family itself.

In later generations, there was an outlaw named Zhang San who once said that the greatest sorrow of mankind is the inability to bridge the gap between knowing and doing.

Although Cui Shao did not know the existence of this sentence at this time, he had the same feeling. He knew that the essence of Ye Mingsheng's move was to take advantage of the weakness of the major families, that they were not united and had their own thoughts, in order to provoke conflicts and divisions and win them over in order to defeat them one by one.

Cui Shao knew ways to fight against it, such as forming an alliance through marriage and creating common interests, but his reason also made him realize that even if he used all his means, as long as Ye Mingsheng continued to instigate divisions and exert pressure, the fragile alliance of the noble families would eventually fall apart...
After all, with Ye Mingsheng now in a dominant position, it is almost impossible to make the Yun family, the Gongsun family, and those self-proclaimed kings who have guns and territories truly surrender, listen to the leadership of their Cui family, contribute their strength, and deal with Ye Mingsheng together!
After a pause, Cui Shao instructed Cui Zibo;

"Served with pen and ink!"

Although Cui Zibo was a little surprised that his father was still in the mood to write calligraphy at this time, he still obediently did as he was told and ground the ink.

While Cui Zibo was grinding the ink, Cui Shao was also brewing his ideas. When Cui Zibo finished the preparations, he immediately took out the letter paper and started writing.

Although he knew that he was at a disadvantage, Cui Shao was not someone who would accept defeat willingly. He wanted to make efforts to change the situation.

It took Cui Shao a stick of incense time to finish writing two letters before he put down his pen. The two letters were written to Gongsun Heng of the Gongsun family and Yun Guanjing of the Yun family. Although the contents of the letters were different, their general meanings were similar.

All of these indicate that this evil plot was Ye Mingsheng's plan to sow discord. The Cui family will not destroy the relationship between the Gongsun family and the Yun family for this petty profit. They want everyone not to have any unnecessary thoughts. As long as they unite as one, they can defeat Ye Mingsheng...

Cui Zibo, who watched Cui Shao finish writing the letter, looked hesitant after reading the contents of the letter. He seemed to want to say something but was afraid to anger Cui Shao. Cui Shao, who was already in a bad mood, was even more angry when he saw his son's fearful look. He rebuked him:
"As a man, just speak your mind. How can you be so cowardly? You are my son. Even if what you say is wrong, I can only reprimand you. I can't kill you or skin you alive!"

"Look at how hesitant you are now. How can I let you take charge of things on your own and leave the Cui family to you?"

Hearing Cui Shao's rebuke, Cui Zibo gritted his teeth, made up his mind and said:
"Father, you suppressed all the issues and asked everyone to reject Ye Mingsheng's promotion this time. This has put too much pressure on you in the clan. Can those uncles accept this?"

"I think it's better to keep half and reject the other half! If we do this, we can have an explanation within the clan, the Gongsun family, and the Yun family, without offending anyone..."

Seeing that Cui Zibo really had this idea, Cui Shao tapped his head and said,

"Remember, at this time, you can choose to maintain the family alliance, or you can choose to maintain the stability within the family!"

"Whichever of these two options you choose has its pros and cons. You have to make a decision based on your prestige and rule in the family, but the last thing you can do is compromise like you just did!"

"You seem to be offending no one by doing this, but in fact you are offending everyone!"

"Do you think that if you give up half of it, the Yun family and the Gongsun family will understand you and be grateful to you? No! They will still curse your ancestors!"

"Within the family, no matter who you ask to accept or who you ask to refuse, the person who refuses will feel even more unbalanced. Why can you let him accept Ye Mingsheng's promotion, but let me refuse this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity? It's better to refuse everything from the beginning!"

"When faced with this kind of dilemma, compromising means you won't be popular with anyone or anyone!" Cui Shao said helplessly.

After hearing his father's insightful analysis, Cui Zibo suddenly became enlightened. He bowed to Cui Shao and said:

"Zi Bo, remember what your father taught you!"

Seeing that Cui Zibo had listened to his words, Cui Shao felt somewhat comforted and instructed again:

“Ask the family to prepare some money and goods! Let everyone reject Ye Mingsheng’s promotion. At least you have to give everyone some compensation to appease their hearts…”

(End of this chapter)