Chapter 32 Section Six: There Are Many Anti-Thieves

Since Wang Mang proclaimed himself emperor, there has been a great expansion, and he used himself as a majestic and swaying existence. Every time he caught his own hair, he was raised in the sky, looking at the ocean with cold eyes, and open his mouth to eat the wind.This year was originally his twelfth year as emperor, and it was also the first natal year of the new dynasty, but who knew that the wind and rain, the voices were ruthless, family affairs and state affairs, and everything worried, so Wang Mang felt lonely and tragic. Out of emptiness and itching, in his pessimistic eyes, God abandoned him, the people betrayed him, and this added to his heart the desolation of a martyr.

Wang Mang is confident, he knows his weight, and he firmly believes that the truth is only in his hands.It took five hundred years for a sage to emerge. The last sage was Confucius. More than five hundred years have passed, and the current sage is Wang Mang.Anyone can fail, but Wang Mang must not fail. Once he fails, it will not only be his personal loss, but also the loss of the people, the loss of the world, and the loss of future generations.For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many enter in; narrow is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to heaven, and few find it.Wang Mang wants to lead his people through this small road and narrow gate to reach the ancient golden age and the heaven dreamed by Confucianism. Once he fails, the latecomers will definitely take him as a warning, thinking that this way is not feasible, and will never go forward again. And so go astray, toward the wide gate that leads to destruction.

The proliferation of refugees and thieves has strengthened Wang Mang's confidence even more. As the saying goes, saints are immortal and thieves are endless. The more refugees and thieves, the more it means that Wang Mang is a saint.However, Wang Mang didn't believe in evil, so he wanted to break the vicious circle of immortal saints and endless thieves.In today's world, not only the people choose the king, but the king also chooses the people. In his great transformation, every citizen of the empire should feel honored to be in it, and you refugees don't understand my painstaking efforts at all , If you insist on dragging your feet, if you insist on not making progress, then you are not worthy of being citizens of the empire, traitors, all traitors!

Wang Mang decided to declare war and govern the country, not to treat guests to dinner, let alone to have the benevolence of women, just as the branches of trees must be pruned before they can grow strong, the weeds must be uprooted, so that the seedlings can be healthy, and the forest must have small fires every now and then before it can avoid a big fire , Dao follows nature, and chaos can lead to great governance.Wang Mang loves the people like his son, but he even has the heart to kill his own son, let alone his adopted son?In the name of truth and in the name of love, he will carry out a sweeping cleanup to kill all these rebellious refugees and never allow them to block the wheels of the empire.Although there are many refugees, there are still nearly 70 million people in the world, so what is the death of a few million?After killing the refugees, the rest are naturally good people, and these are the people that the new dynasty really needs, and they are the new people that suit my heart.

Wang Mang then issued an edict, ordering a comprehensive encirclement and suppression of the refugees, who must be eradicated and then cleaned up. If the state and county officials excuse the refugees or fail to arrest the rebels, they will be imprisoned immediately and punished. Wang Mang's edict sounds majestic and murderous, but it has not scared the refugees, but it has already caused the officials of the state and county to panic.They were driven to a dead end, and they had no other choice but to encircle and suppress the refugees in the territory. They could no longer appease or be gentle.By what encirclement and suppression?Talking about it is not enough, the army must be used.However, states and counties cannot send troops without authorization, unless there is a tiger talisman specially bestowed by the imperial court.

The problem is that Wang Mang only gave the state edict, but never gave the state and county tiger charms.So a paradox similar to Catch-22 appeared: the imperial court ordered the states and counties to use the army, but according to the imperial court's regulations, the states and counties had no right to use the army. Under such a paradox, state and county officials can only pretend to be deaf and dumb, and let the refugees go their own way. Wang Mang may not be aware of this paradox, but he clearly realizes that it may not be enough to rely solely on the power of the state and county.Although the refugees are blooming everywhere, the situation in two places is the most severe - the Green Forest Army in Jingzhou and the Fan Chong Army in Qingzhou and Xuerzhou.Wang Mang decided to use the central army to fight on these two fronts at the same time.As long as these two armed forces are resolved, the rest of the stragglers will naturally be nothing to worry about.