Chapter 583: The Party Ban is Open, and the Heroes Are in Chaos

An imperial decree came from the North Palace of Luoyang.

"The evil people of Taiping have brought chaos to the country and caused the whole country to be in turmoil. I am deeply worried.

Are there any great sages who have been lost in the countryside because of their involvement with party members?

Are there any heroes who are not valued by the court because they are from a remote county?

Are there any brave and courageous people in the countryside who want to serve the court but don’t know where to go?

I am now determined to change all this. If there are great and wise men who are both civil and military, heroes in the border counties, and brave and martial people, they can come to the court to seek office. I can also recruit local militia in the counties and prefectures to wipe out the Taiping Army.

I will reward them according to their merits, and will never let any pearls be lost in the vast ocean."

He lifted the ban on political parties and allowed scholars to participate in politics freely.

Recruit soldiers locally and allow powerful families to freely develop their armed forces.

This decree spread like the wind along Luoyang's extensive roads to the rest of the world.

Luo Xiao was so close to Luoyang, so he was naturally the first to receive the news.

Luo Xiao already knew this would happen long before the decree appeared. Since the imperial guards of the imperial court could not be rebuilt in a short period of time, it was inevitable that they would have to rely on local armed forces.

In the past, the Zhou Dynasty took this old path, and eventually the princes became powerful.

However, the situation of the Han court was much better than that of the Bang Zhou royal family, as the systems of the two sides were completely different.

Even though the armed forces of the powerful families have developed to a certain extent, the imperial court still has the upper hand both in terms of righteousness and strength.

As long as the emperor is strong enough, these powerful armed forces are just serving the royal family.

…

By the river, Luo Xiao stood with his hands behind his back.

The previous confrontation with Huangfu Song had not made him so serious. He knew that this time he was facing the real heroes of the world. All the heroes of the entire Han court stood against him.

The destiny of the Han Dynasty came to an abrupt end, and Luo Xiao didn't know what level of heroes would appear.

If he had the level of those heroes at the end of the Qin Dynasty, it would be difficult even for him to pacify the world and wipe out all the heroes.

“Ahem.”

There were a few streaks of blood on the white cloth, bright and eye-catching. Luo Xiao's eyes darkened, "What a pity, I don't know how many more heroes I will have the chance to meet.

Will the Taiping Army be the basis for your rise?"

Luo Xiao's judgment on the Taiping Army is that there is a serious shortage of talent, and this shortage cannot be compensated.

Not to mention the wealthy and powerful families, even the children of poor families, and even the most ordinary businessmen, small landlords, handicraftsmen, etc., would not join the Taiping Army.

Once he died, the Taiping Army, having lost its spiritual support, would soon become useless and might even soon turn into thieves like the officers and soldiers.

However, Luo Xiao doesn't care about the future. Life in this world does not have to be perfect. It is enough to accomplish one great thing.

The same was true for the Taiping Army. As long as they accomplished one great thing and pushed the corrupt Han court into an abyss of no return, it would be enough to make their names remembered by history for tens of millions of years.

…

The imperial edict issued by the court was quickly circulated to the counties and prefectures. The Taiping uprising was massive, but in fact most of the counties and prefectures were still under the control of the Han court.

However, as more cities lost order, more and more ordinary people joined the Taiping Army.

In the counties where the Taiping Rebellion broke out, the powerful families were basically wiped out. Not to mention the ordinary powerful landlords, even the top families could not escape.

Apart from Jizhou, the outbreak was most severe in Qingzhou and Yanyu, two populous provinces, and these two regions suffered the most.

The Lu family occupied Linzi County in Qingzhou and Jiaodong State for three hundred years. There was no telling how many members of the family were there. The target was too big, and it can be said that they suffered heavy losses.

This is not just about the Qingzhou Taiping Rebellion. It's also about the three hundred years over which the Lu family has many branches that have gradually spread out and without the strict management of the Luo family, the relationships between the various branches of the Lu family are quite complicated.

Especially during the Later Han Dynasty, some branches were more prosperous than the main vein, resulting in the relationship between the various veins being far from harmonious.

In addition, as the county's reputation gradually rose, there were also surnames such as Luo, which was unique in the world.

There are frequent disputes over who is the first in surname.

Especially the Linzi Lu and Jimo Lu, Huaiyin Han and Anyang Han, the superiority and inferiority between these two surnames and the four families were often brought up for discussion.

Some things, if said too much, will hurt feelings, which is normal behavior.

It's OK when facing the Luo family, but when facing other families, no one wants to be second. Precisely because they are from the same clan, they want to compete for superiority. This is human nature.

Just like in the early days of the struggle for supremacy among heroes in real history, all wars revolved around the struggle between the two Yuans. People often say that if they had joined forces, the Yuan family would have won the throne long ago, but the fact is that it is impossible for them to join forces.

Whether it was the power of their subordinates or the personal wishes between the two, it was destined that the fight between the two Yuans would never stop.

Apart from the Luo family, no other family can change this situation.

Now that the imperial court has relaxed restrictions and many heroes have emerged in Qingzhou, the Lu family naturally cannot fall behind. Once they fall behind, they will not only face encirclement and suppression from others, but also have to guard against attacks from their own family members.

After receiving the imperial edict from Luoyang, the governors and prefects of various states finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Before, except for a few marquises of the Jinling family, these prefects had no qualifications to recruit more civilians. They could only gather heroes in the name of a security team.

Now that the imperial court has given the order, we can directly and openly recruit these heroes.

As the imperial court lifted its ban, not many scholars went to the court to serve, mainly because the world was in chaos and the dangers of traveling increased.

It would be better to stay in the prefectures and counties and serve in the governor's shogunate.

The two thousand stone governors who were usually supervised by the six hundred stone governors have now turned the tables and become the masters.

As the highest official of a county, the prefect had enormous power. The Later Han Dynasty did not have as many Jinling marquises as the Early Han Dynasty. With so much military power in their hands, the governor was nothing more than an inspector, so the prefects immediately ignored him.

Some of these prefects were heirs to marquis families, and their family officials were officials of the rank of two thousand stones. Although they could not serve as prefects in their own counties because of the Three Mutual Law, the effect was almost the same when they served as prefects in other counties in their states.

They can also exchange political resources with the two thousand stone families in neighboring counties and even reach inter-family marriages.

From this we can see the difference between the marquis families of the pre-Han Dynasty and the post-Han Dynasty.

The marquis families of the early Han Dynasty were special. Even powerful families like the Five Surnames and Seven Families would usually choose to marry into the alliances with princes or Confucian scholars families in Chang'an.

However, the situation was different for the marquis families of the Later Han Dynasty. Except for a few families that supported Emperor Guangwu, no golden decree was issued for a hundred years.

This is related to the situation at the end of the pre-Han Dynasty.

Due to the rebellion of the princes in the late period of the Pre-Han Dynasty, the Later Han Dynasty was quite wary of close relatives, but distant relatives benefited from this. The fiefdoms of close relatives were not even as worthy as county marquises, and kingdoms as large as a county were basically gone.

During the Later Han Dynasty, marquis basically became an honorary title. The imperial court rarely conferred titles of county marquis, and being conferred the title of township marquis was considered a great favor from heaven, not to mention marquis of a thousand households, there were even marquis of a hundred households.

The importance of an official position exceeds that of a title, but the advantage of having a title is that one can get a stable position of two thousand stones.

————

In ancient dynasties, exerting power on local areas was always seen as the beginning of chaos, but in fact this is putting the cart before the horse. Exerting power on local areas is the result of chaos, not the cause. Only when the central court can no longer resolve the situation on its own will it give power to local areas.

The strengthening of local power is not the beginning of destruction. During the Western Han Dynasty, several emperors successfully solved the problem of excessive power of local princes and ensured the stability of the country. It is incorrect to attribute the decline of the Han Dynasty solely to the strengthening of local power.

In the following chapters, the author will explain the many factors that led to the decline of the Han Dynasty through the experience of the Taiping Rebellion.

Thanks to the leader Buyu for the reward.

Give yourself some pressure. Within three days, write one more chapter. The extra chapter will be sent out as two chapters in one. If you update three chapters, the average subscription will drop.

The Three Kingdoms chapter will be written slowly. The Eastern Han Dynasty has not been written yet, so there are many things to add.

(End of this chapter)