Chapter 327 Liuguo
War is never an end, but a means.
The imperial court put down the rebellions of King Huainan and King Wu easily, but the subsequent reconstruction of order was the key.
The first thing is to carry out brutal political purges and legal characterizations of the criminals who conspired to organize against the Han court.
The political qualities Liu Heng demonstrated before and after this incident made Luo Xin feel that it was time to really let Liu Heng get involved in political affairs, and this happened to be a very good opportunity.
"They have been entrenched for decades and their networks are so complicated. I never imagined that there would be such a large group opposing the imperial court among the vassal states.
Uncle, what should we do with these people?"
"According to Han law, the main culprit will be executed, and the rest will be exiled to Lingnan."
Liu Heng was stunned when he heard what Luo Xin said. There were more than 30,000 people. Were they all exiled to Lingnan?
“Your Majesty, exiling to Lingnan is a brilliant plan that will achieve multiple goals at once, and you must stick to it when you take power in the future.
What Lingnan lacked most was the Han people. King Zhao Tuo of Lingnan wrote to the court many times, hoping to migrate more Han people to Lingnan.
However, the land of Lingnan is not yet very suitable for large-scale human habitation. The large-scale migration of Han people now is what was used to oppress and mistreat the people, which is tantamount to exile.
Exiling someone who is innocent is not what the court should do.
But now, there are so many sinners, even more than the total number in the past ten years. It is already a grace from the court not to kill them. They are just the right time to go to Lingnan to open up wasteland.
Moreover, if such a large number of powerful merchants migrate together, a large number of positions will be vacated, and those who have great talents but cannot display them will be able to take advantage of this opportunity. "
Liu Heng suddenly raised his head when he heard this. He heard something else in these words. Political struggles can also be beneficial when they are manipulated.
There are always talented people in the world who are not appreciated. If these people are not reused, they will cause trouble. However, it is precisely because high positions are held by the powerful that these people cannot be promoted or reused.
Political struggles can be used as an opportunity to purge useless aristocratic bureaucrats and achieve the effect of class mobility.
Luo Xin was looking at him, and seeing that Liu Heng was indeed smart and could actually hear the deep meaning in his words, he smiled with satisfaction. Liu Heng realized that he was right, and a storm was set off in his young mind. How could this be possible?
Then his eyes suddenly became excited. He felt that he still had a lot to learn and was far behind his uncle.
After the punishment of the criminals was settled, the next step was to deal with the more critical two vassal states, Huainan and Wu.
The rebellion of the King of Huainan and the Kingdom of Wu failed, so the kingdom would naturally be eliminated. Luo Xin looked at Liu Heng and decided to test him, so he asked: "Your Majesty, what do you think should be done with the Kingdom of Huainan and the Kingdom of Wu?
Should we continue to select suitable candidates from the royal family to be crowned kings, or should we make them counties directly under the jurisdiction of the imperial court?"
Liu Heng pondered for a moment and then said, "Uncle, you once told me the advantages and disadvantages of enfeoffment and counties. There is no difference between the two.
I remember that three months ago, you explained to me the reforms of various countries and said that in the State of Chu, counties and kingdoms were implemented in parallel and in an interlaced manner.
During this rebellion between Huainan and Wu, the King of Jiaodong was the quietest because he was directly blocked by the Thirteen Marquises of Qi and Lu.
These are all one by one.
I have some ideas.
Is it possible to divide the vast Shandong area into kingdoms, and then enfeoff marquises in the key counties of the kingdoms, retaining the power of commanding the army for the princes and marquises, but taking away the administrative power, and then set up some directly governed counties in the contiguous kingdoms and marquisates?
This not only retained a certain degree of power among the princes, effectively deterring those in the court who attempted to usurp the throne, but also curbed the princes by making them the new marquises.
As you said, military nobles like Chehou depend on imperial power for their survival. Once there is no war and they lose the emperor's trust, they will quickly decline and become ordinary fiefdom nobles.
As for setting up counties, it was exactly the policy you described that was implemented in the Chu State of the Mi clan, such as dividing the Wu State into three counties, so that the connection between the Yue State and the Chu State was lost and the kingdoms were not connected together.
In this way, court officials, princes, and dukes can reach a balance. "
"Your Majesty, you are truly extremely intelligent. You are the most precious gift bestowed by God upon the Han people."
Luo Xinyan really couldn't help but burst out laughing. Regardless of whether Liu Heng's idea could be realized, it was already remarkable that he could say such words at his age.
The most important thing is that he can draw inferences from one example and combine the various policies and guidelines that have appeared in history that Luo Xin told him based on reality. This is a very unusual ability.
Liu Heng was very excited to hear Luo Xin's praise. In his eyes, his uncle was the most powerful person in the world, and he, who was praised by his uncle, was the second most powerful. He smiled and asked, "Uncle, what do you think of what I just said?"
This was the first time that Liu Heng put forward his opinion on such a policy that concerned the whole world. Luo Xin was well aware that education should always encourage children. He certainly would not discourage Liu Heng on such a matter. At most, he would make some minor adjustments and put in more effort in its implementation.
So he said in a gentle voice: "Your Majesty, your suggestion is very practical and can be implemented. However, in actual operation, many problems will be encountered, such as the location of kingdoms, marquisates, and counties, how to make them intertwine, and how to keep them balanced instead of one side swallowing the other.
The selection of princes, marquises, county governors and county magistrates is very important. If the princes and marquises are in collusion with each other, this policy will lose its effect. If the county governors and county magistrates are incompetent or even curry favor with the powerful, they will follow the orders of the princes and marquises.
Do you still remember what I said when I told you about the reforms in various countries?
The Qin State's reform was basically copied from the Wei State's reform, and the Chu State's reform was also largely copied from the Wei State's reform. The reforms of various countries were similar, and the content of the reforms was there.
Where is the gap?
It’s all about execution!
The same is true now. Your wild and unconstrained plans need to be implemented by nobles, officials, powerful people, and even the common people. These people are the key to determining the success or failure of your policies. "
Liu Heng was thoughtful after hearing this, and looked at Luo Xin and said, "Uncle, when you implement this policy, can I follow you?
You have said more than once that the central court's orders will be completely changed when they reach the local level, and constant attention must be paid to ensure the full implementation of the policies.
I want to see what problems a policy will encounter from its proposal to its final implementation. "
Luo Xin smiled and said, "You are the Son of Heaven of the Chinese Empire and the Emperor of the Han Dynasty. I am your subject. You can certainly follow up on this policy. This is exactly what I want to lead you to do."
Liu Heng was very excited to get a positive answer. Naturally, there were some rumors that came from nowhere during Luo Xin's regent years.
It was said that Luo Xin had completely monopolized power and was unwilling to give it to the emperor. As the emperor grew older, Luo Xin probably didn't want to return power.
This is normal. After all, King Su was slandered by his own brothers in the past, and Luo Xin is no exception.
However, Liu Heng himself never felt that Luo Xin brought him pressure while living in the palace, and he could feel that Luo Xin was really teaching him seriously to become a qualified emperor.
Therefore, he did not have to deal with Luo Xin with the attitude of a powerful official, but dared to take the initiative to undertake some matters within his ability. As he expected, Prime Minister Luo Xin was very willing to participate in it and was happy with his achievements.
"Then there is only one last thing left, which is the reward for the heroes who quelled the rebellion this time."
Speaking of this, Luo Xin and Liu Heng both looked a little strange. Luo Xin pondered and said, "First of all, the imperial guards and the young men in Guanzhong should be well rewarded. This is a great opportunity to show the grace of the court.
If these people are loyal to the court, then the court will be as stable as Mount Tai. Your Majesty can bestow them with wealth, food, gold, silver, and cloth, and select new warriors from among them to serve in the palace."
Liu Heng nodded. These were routine rewards. This time Luo Xin meant to give more. The rewards for the soldiers were simple, and the rewards for General Han Xin were also simple. There were so many households anyway, so it didn't matter if he added a little more.
The most troublesome are the Chehou. These people just want to gain military merit. Because the relationship between the second and third generations of Chehou and the royal family is getting more and more distant, this makes some people worried. They don't even need to increase the number of households in their fiefdoms, but want to return to the core circle of Chang'an.
"Your Majesty, the group of meritorious officials want official positions."
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In the previous chapter, the author talked about how Dong'a Hou Luo Xin did not completely eliminate the power of local princes, but instead implemented a system of exiled countries on the land where the rebellion was quelled. In this chapter, the author will describe in detail this far-reaching system.
The core idea of this system is a system of military merit that allows one to be promoted or demoted. The king ensures low-cost local governance by granting land to relatives and meritorious officials, but it is very different from the granting of land in the pre-Qin period.
The essence of this system is that clan relatives obtain the right to use land through their close blood ties with the king, and meritorious officials obtain the right to use land through their loyalty to the king and their contributions to the dynasty.
Once the king believes that the blood ties between the clan members are no longer close, he will begin to take back the fiefdom.
This is an irreversible process. The only way is for distant relatives to become a member of the military merit group and experience the transformation from a prince to a marquis, which is much more difficult than for an ordinary person to become a marquis.
The same is true for Che Hou, the enfeoffment of a state is not a one-time thing.
There are only two paths for any Marquis. The first is to stay in Chang'an City and become a close minister of the monarch, and then continue to gain the monarch's trust to maintain the existence of the fiefdom. The second is to try his best to win the dynastic war and maintain the existence of the fiefdom through merit.
certainly.
In the Han Dynasty, the Zhaogong State was a special existence. It was not affected by this system, or it could be said that it was not affected by any system. It existed independently of the political order. ——History of the Rise and Fall of the Han Dynasty
(End of this chapter)
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