After the meeting was finished, everyone dispersed, but Yang Yi did not leave. He followed Zhuge Liang into the inner room. Zhuge Liang knew that he had followed in, but didn't say anything. He just pointed to the seat and signaled Yang Yi to take his seat.

Yang Yi looked at the seat with all the hairs on the sides and sat down reluctantly. After Wei Ba presented a new set of tables and chairs to the emperor, this kind of seating that was more comfortable to sit has become popular in Chengdu. Many people have bought ones, and Yang Yi's family also has one. If people who are used to sitting in a new set of tables and chairs, they will be unable to stand their knees and calves when they ask him to kneel down.

In a powerful family, Zhuge Liang is probably the only one who sticks to this kind of sitting posture and refuses to compromise.

"I also have a set of tables and chairs, but it is easy to be lazy when sitting on them, so I abandon them and leave them alone." Zhuge Liang seemed to see through Yang Yi's thoughts and said lightly: "Only by sitting upright, you can be cautious when you are alone."

Yang Yi responded awkwardly and quickly corrected her attitude.

"Prime Minister, Gu Tan said, of course, it is right, and it is appropriate to do big things without paying attention to the details. But if this is the case, will the public opinion think it is indulgent? If someone imitates it, what should we do? If Wei Ba is so arrogant..."

Yang Yi raised his voice and did not continue to say anything. He stared at Zhuge Liang. Zhuge Liang drooped his eyelids and said nothing. He didn't know if it was a mistake to promote Yang Yi to be the deputy prime minister. Yes, Yang Yi was good at accounting and dealing with the complicated government affairs of the Prime Minister's Office. No matter how complicated the accounts were, he would not be difficult for him. However, this man was too incompetent in power planning. Not only could he be compared with Ma Su and Wei Ba, but he was also somewhat different from Gu Tan.

Wei Ba is getting more and more powerful? That would be better. Zhuge Liang was not worried that Wei Ba is getting more and more powerful. But he was worried that Wei Ba will do his best to do it step by step. In fact, so far, whether it was killing Wang Ping or abandoning Pengcheng, Wei Ba did not reveal any flaws that could be caught. That is, what Gu Tan said, he did not have any evidence to confirm. He was tempted and constantly counterattacked with a tough attitude, but he was very cautious and never showed any flaws that could be seized.

Yang Yi didn't even see this. How could he understand the subtle relationship here?

Seeing Zhuge Liang silent, Yang Yi thought Zhuge Liang was also in a dilemma, and continued, "I heard that Gu Tan's younger brother Gu Cheng had already joined the Wei Ba's shogunate. Gu Tan's mother's uncle Shao had just returned from conquering Yizhou with Xiahou Xuan. Wei Ba asked him for merit and titled as a miscellaneous general, which was suspected of being surpassed. It was obvious that he wanted to win over. Will Gu Tan repay his kindness and protect each other privately?"

"Even if Wei Gong. Gu Tan is selfish, it cannot show that his suggestion is wrong. For now, we should not be entangled in the issue of the Eastern Front." Zhuge Liang interrupted Yang Yi's nagging and reversed the topic very toughly: "If we want to start a war in Guanzhong, can Chengdu still draw some money and food?"

Yang Yi was unhappy, but she did not dare to disobey. She hurriedly said, "Prime Minister, how much do you need? Yizhou has been going well over the years, and there are still some food reserved in the warehouse. If there is no major war on the Eastern Front, you can be transferred out to save the emergency."

"Prepare food for waste." Zhuge Liang hesitated a little. As the saying goes, if you have surplus food for the family, you are not panic. No one can guarantee that the weather will be good every year. Things often happen in the year of wasteland and disasters. As the Prime Minister's Office in charge of civil affairs, it is normal for a certain amount of food to be saved in the year of wasteland. Generally speaking, these foods cannot be misappropriated, otherwise they will be caught off guard once they encounter natural disasters.

Although we have been fighting in wars over the years, Wei Ba used the grain produced by Jingzhou and Jiaozhou. When Zhuge Liang was in Guanzhong, he mainly relied on the grain produced by Guanzhong, and then allocated a part of it from Wei Ba. This is how the huge debt came about, and Yizhou rarely used its reserves, so Yizhou has stored some grain in recent years, and there is no problem with the normal supply.

But if you want to dispatch a large army to fight, there will be problems.

Now, the battlefield on the Eastern Front has actually been under the command of the Prime Minister's Office. Wei Ba refused to pay taxes, money and grain, and the supply of the army on the Eastern Front battlefield must be solved by the Prime Minister's Office. If there is no war, the daily supply is limited, and the Prime Minister's Office can still support it. If a war starts, it will inevitably be a little tight. For this reason, Zhuge Liang accepted Gu Tan's suggestion to stabilize the battlefield on the Eastern Front, focus on defending, and do not take the initiative to cause trouble, and turn his attention to the Western Front.

However, if you want to make some moves on the Western Front, you also need a large amount of food as a backing. Li Yan has made it clear that Guanzhong has limited reserves and is not enough to launch a war. If the court requires Guanzhong to send troops, then solve the problem of food first. This is of course Li Yan's excuse, but Zhuge Liang has no choice, because Li Yan insists that those deficits were owed by him when he was in charge of Guanzhong.

When Zhuge Liang was in charge of Guanzhong, the consumption was indeed quite large because of several major wars. Not only did he owed Wei Ba a lot of money, but he also borrowed a lot of money from the powerful people in Guanzhong and Hanzhong. When Zhuge Liang was in charge of Guanzhong, he just used the taxes that these people should pay every year to gradually offset them, and he just collected less, not that he did not charge them at all, and no one dared to ask him for it. Now Li Yan was in charge of Guanzhong, but he said he would take the initiative to pay off his debts, so he used almost all the annual harvest. As for whether he really paid off the debt, only ghosts knew that Li Yan really paid off some of it, maybe he didn't pay it back at all, but he was just in the same position as those powerful people.

No matter what, Zhuge Liang was incompetent and lacked confidence in speaking. If he wanted to start a war and force Li Yan to the battlefield, he would have to solve some of the food problems.

Now, the grain he can use includes two parts: part of it is the grain storage in Hanzhong and part of it is the grain storage in Yizhou. Hanzhong is a spare granary in Guanzhong, which stores some of the grain, but the quantity is limited, and the grain in Yizhou needs to be prepared for wasteland and cannot be moved lightly.

Doing things requires money and food, especially grain. Money can be earned through various means. As long as you find a source of wealth, you can achieve rapid growth. However, grain production is limited by the land and population, and it is impossible to grow unlimitedly.

The reason why Wei Ba was confident was that he discovered a place suitable for planting rice in a wilderness like Jiaozhou, especially in the wilderness of Rinan and Jiuzhen, and introduced high-yield rice. Zhuge Liang did not have such convenient conditions, so he could only use his intelligence and try his best to turn around, which is commonly known as tearing down the east wall and filling the west wall.

Being stretched is a true portrayal of Zhuge Liang's current moment.

It is a big deal to use the preparation of waste food. Once something happens, even if Zhuge Liang has the hat of being a father, he may not be able to withstand it. He did not dare to make a decision immediately, but just asked Yang Yi to sort out the relevant accounts, and he had to think about it carefully. Yang Yi was very quick and did not take long, so he sorted out the relevant accounts and sent them to Zhuge Liang's desk.

Late at night, Zhuge Liang looked through the account book, paced for a long time, pondering hard, and hesitating.

Huang Yueying walked out with the ginseng soup, glanced at Zhuge Liang, then looked at the account book on the case, and sighed softly: "Husband, why are you doing this?"

Zhuge Liang took the ginseng Tang and took a sip, turned his head, looked at Huang Yueying's worried eyes, and was puzzled.

"Don't you think that you are the one who is doing the right thing to the whole world now?" Huang Yueying walked to Zhuge Liang, picked up a white hair on his shoulder, and whispered: "You used to have the help of the Jingxiang Group, but now even the Jingxiang Group has turned to Wei Ba. Husband, even your brother-in-law is unwilling to stand up to help you. You have been betrayed by everyone, so when are you still going to persevere?"

Zhuge Liang shook his hand and poured ginseng soup on his chest. He lowered his head and looked at the wet mark on his chest. He suddenly felt like a tear mark, and it seemed like a bloody mark on his chest. His wife has always been his most determined partner, and now even her wife is urging him to give up, which makes his heart feel a little empty.

The wife was right. He was almost betrayed by everyone now. After Xiang Lang returned home in a high-profile manner, most of the Jingxiang Group, except for a few people, were openly and secretly, and even the Kuai family, who had a relative with him, the Pang family was no exception. The Pang family turned to the Wei family because of their relationship with the Xi family, and could barely have a remark, but his second brother-in-law, Kuai Qi, died at the hands of Meng Da. Now, for the sake of profit, the Kuai family has temporarily put aside their grudges with Meng Da and has been with the Wei family, hoping to get a share of the pie.

"Madam, am I really doing something wrong?" Zhuge Liang asked in a naughty way: "Or why would everyone betray their relatives and be so helpless?"

Huang Yueying spoke to her, but when she saw Zhuge Liang's lost eyes, she couldn't bear to continue. She hesitated for a while and said softly: "It's not that you were wrong, it's that people in the world who like benefits more than righteousness. As the Master said, there are many lustful people, while there are few who like virtue. You are not lustful, so you marry me. You insist on righteousness, so you have to be enemies with people in the world who like benefits. It's not that people in the world who are good at benefit, but that people in the world who are wrong."

"So, should I stick to my right, be enemies with the world, or follow the situation and do things wrong with the world?"

Huang Yueying was speechless. She didn't know how to respond to Zhuge Liang's words. This kind of question may not be answered by Confucius again. Confucius insisted on morality, but he suffered all his life. Mencius insisted on righteousness, but he was unsuccessful all his life and could only leave his grand aura in his book.

Zhuge Liang looked at Huang Yueying, Huang Yueying looked at Zhuge Liang, and the couple were speechless. After a long time, Huang Yueying sighed, lowered her eyelids, and gently patted Zhuge Liang's back: "Kongming, you have been persisting for a lifetime. I'm afraid it's too late to change now. Follow your heart. Benefits in life and fame after life. It's hard to achieve both morality and merits since ancient times. How many people can be perfect? ​​A gentleman walks straight and has no guilt to his heart, so that he can walk around the world without vain."

Zhuge Liang laughed silently, reached out and hugged Huang Yueying in his arms, raised the ginseng soup in his hand, and greeted the sky: "God, if you get a wife like this, what else can your husband ask for? I am very content."

Huang Yueying hugged Zhuge Liang's waist tightly and leaned on Zhuge Liang's chest. Tears burst out from his eyes and wet Zhuge Liang's chest.

.(To be continued, please search for Piaotianyi, novels are better, updated and faster!

ps: On the second to last day, continue to ask for monthly tickets and continue to ask for recommendation tickets!
Chapter completed!