Chapter 370 Two Brothers
“Boom!”
The purple-blue thunder broke through the dark cloud sky, becoming the only bright color between heaven and earth, and the deafening sound of thunder just came.
“Crack.”
Strong winds blew up branches of trees as thick as bowls, and heavy rain poured down. The water volume of rivers in Jiujiang Junior High School suddenly increased, and the dirt roads in the junior high school were full of mud that was difficult to walk on.
Jiujiang Palace.
Liu Qi looked at the rumbling rain outside the window and felt a little unwell and depressed. Even though he had been here for quite some time, he still found it hard to accept.
The Jiujiang State today is not a place of outstanding people and beautiful scenery as it was in later generations, but a land of barbarians and miasma. Although it was incorporated into the sphere of influence of the Chinese as early as the time of the Chu State, and both the Qin Dynasty and the Han Dynasty established ruling institutions here, to be honest, if calculated simply by population, this place is not yet a solid and indivisible territory of the Chinese.
There are many mountainous areas in Jiujiang State, and a large number of indigenous people live in the mountains.
Hundreds of years ago, the Chu and Wu states fought a great war here, and they frantically captured people from the relatively flat areas to use as cannon fodder, causing the barbarians to flee into the mountains. Even now they don’t know that the outside world has become the Han Dynasty’s.
Although the Han Dynasty established counties here, it mainly built some large cities in the plains. The reclaimed land was around the cities. There were not even straight roads connecting the towns, big and small. Countless indigenous people lived between the cities. This situation was quite similar to the city-state era of various countries hundreds of years ago, and was completely different from the situation in the Central Plains where the people went deep into the villages.
This is why the Luo family has been working tirelessly to migrate population to the south. In fact, they are gradually filling those depopulated areas just as they did in the Central Plains in the past.
“Knock, knock, knock.”
In the pouring rain, there was a knock on the door, and then a maid dressed in rather cool clothes walked into the bedroom and said politely, "Your Majesty, the Grand Tutor wants to see you."
Liu Qi's heart skipped a beat when he heard this. It was raining so hard, why was the Grand Tutor here?
"Please invite the Master in."
Jiujiang Wang Taifu walked into the hall and took off his raincoat, which was used to keep out the rain. The rain on the raincoat flowed down to the ground and instantly became wet. He walked quickly into the inner hall, bowed slightly, and said directly: "Your Majesty, your majesty is in Changle Palace, and Crown Prince Che ascended the throne in the presence of all the ministers. He announced it to the world with the emperor's seal, and he also called himself the emperor of all Xia in front of Su Wang's mausoleum, and announced it to the world with the imperial seal."
“Boom!”
There was another sound of thunder that shook the sky.
“Snap!”
The beautiful jade in Liu Qi's hand fell to the ground in an instant. The light of lightning shone on his face, making his pupils appear even darker and bluer.
He closed his eyes slightly, somewhat unwilling to believe this cruel fact that his younger brother finally ascended the throne.
He is a complete loser.
"Master, you came here in such a storm, not just to tell me this news, right? What else do you have? Tell me at the same time. Could the news be worse than this?"
Listening to Liu Qi's hoarse voice, Wang Taifu felt a little sad, but still said: "There is an imperial decree from Chang'an. The angel is outside now. He specially arranged for you to come to Beijing, saying that the Queen Mother misses you very much.
He also said that His Majesty had just ascended the throne, and after much thought, he realized that you were the person closest to him, so he hoped that you could come to Chang'an City to share his joy with you."
"This is too much!"
The expression on Liu Qi's face was a little unbearable. He never expected that Liu Che would humiliate him like this and ask him to go to Chang'an to congratulate him on his ascension to the throne?
It would be better to just kill him!
It’s no wonder that Liu Qi couldn’t hold it in. What’s the difference between this and Huang Mao showing off in front of the victim how smooth his wife is?
Tutor Wang was equally angry, but there was nothing he could do. The Emperor had even brought out the Empress Dowager. If he didn't go, he would be branded as unfilial. He could only swallow his anger.
Liu Qi asked, "When does the decree say we should set out? I must prepare a great gift for your majesty."
Hearing the gnashing of teeth in Liu Qi's words, Wang Taifu whispered, "Set off immediately."
?
Liu Qi thought he had heard it wrong. Set off immediately in this weather?
Wang Taifu whispered, "The decree says that no matter what, we must set off immediately. The Queen Mother and His Majesty miss the King and are unwilling to wait even a moment longer."
Suddenly, there was a commotion outside the palace. Indistinctly, one could hear the noisy voices saying, "Is the Prince of Jiujiang not ready yet? Don't keep the Empress Dowager and His Majesty waiting any longer. Hurry up and leave. Isn't this a great joyous event?"
The sound was neither too loud nor too soft, just loud enough for Liu Qi to hear. These people were all criminals and very brave, so they dared to make such a loud noise in the Jiujiang Palace.
…
"Report!"
"Report!"
The piercing sound broke the tranquility of Chang'an City, and then came all the way to the imperial city, and the messenger went all the way to Changle Palace.
"Your Majesty, the Marquis of Shou, the Marquis of Quyang, and the Marquis of Gu'an have jointly written a letter stating that the King of Jiujiang has mobilized the entire army of the kingdom and rebelled against the court. The three marquises have each led their own private armies to recruit the people of their own kingdoms to block the route of the King of Jiujiang's advance."
One by one, important court officials came to Changle Palace, and most of them didn't care much about the rebellion of Prince Jiujiang.
The parallel system of counties and kingdoms implemented by the Han court was slightly different from that in history. It was a system of parallel counties and kingdoms in which the kings and princes granted fiefs and ruled their own kingdoms.
The power of those marquisates was very great, almost equivalent to that of the kings during the Zhou Dynasty.
However, there was a price to pay for these fiefs, which was to defend the land for the emperor. For example, if the King of Jiujiang rebelled, or if the Southwestern Yi rebelled before, they had to defend the land to the death.
If you hold out to the bitter end, even if you die a heroic death, the court will reward your descendants with titles, or even directly give you a richer and superior county. But if you surrender or escape directly, your country and title will be stripped away, you will be demoted to a commoner, or even exiled to Lingnan to open up again.
The rebellion of the Southwestern Yi was so severe before, but the marquises in the southwest fought desperately to resist, and even two marquises died on the battlefield, all because of the existence of this policy.
Although Liu Qi was the King of Jiujiang, and on the surface the entire Jiujiang County was under his rule, this was not actually the case. There were many marquisates in his kingdom, and these marquises were blocking the throat of the kingdom, like sharp swords, making it hard for the princes to breathe.
Of course, the strength of the princes is still above that of the marquises. After all, one must not only guard against rebellions by the princes, but also against rebellions by marquises of other surnames and county magistrates. This is a two-way process.
Upon hearing the news of the Jiujiang King's rebellion, Liu Che was not angry. Instead, he asked with a puzzled look on his face: "My dear ministers, why did the Jiujiang King rebel? I don't understand."
The ministers looked at each other, not knowing what to say. It seemed not strange whether the Prince of Jiujiang rebelled or not.
But there seemed to be something wrong with starting a rebellion at this time. Someone quietly glanced at the emperor above, but then said nothing. The emperor did not do anything excessive.
Seeing this, Liu Che said, "I think there is something wrong with the land of Jiujiang. In the past, during the reign of Emperor Gao, the King of Jiujiang rebelled. Later, when King Xiang of Huainan died, the court extended favor and divided Huainan into four parts. The King of Huainan established a kingdom in Jiujiang County, but he plotted rebellion, so the kingdom was abolished. The late emperor appointed my brother to the Kingdom of Jiujiang, but I didn't expect that the King of Jiujiang would also rebel.
Is this a coincidence?
I don't think so. After the rebellion of the King of Jiujiang is quelled, Jiujiang will be made into a county, and we will no longer confer titles on kings or establish kingdoms."
The ministers had no objection to Liu Che's words. Counties and kingdoms existed in parallel. Counties could become kingdoms, and kingdoms could become counties. It all depended on the court's will.
"Send troops to Jiujiang State and bring back the King of Jiujiang. I want to ask him why he rebelled."
Liu Che said lightly. The ministers looked at the rather young emperor and had some understanding of his temperament. This was a monarch different from Emperor Wen.
…
Jiujiang State.
"Your Majesty, the vanguard has retreated again. We have lost almost all the cities we have occupied since we started the uprising. We may be defeated soon."
Liu Qi looked at the increasingly deteriorating situation without any despair. Since he started his army, he had not even been able to conquer Jiujiang.
Because those who were hostile to him were not only the marquises of Jiujiang County. After receiving the order to quell the rebellion, the princes and marquises of neighboring countries also began to target him.
The princes can show their loyalty to the court. After all, the princes will be replaced constantly. When the new emperor has a prince, he may feel that they have no merits. What if he replaces them?
For the marquises, when the new emperor ascends the throne, they must behave well. They might be promoted by the emperor from a local garrison to Chang'an to serve as a general of the imperial guards and become powerful for a time.
He had just arrived and his foundation was not stable, so it was normal for him to be in the current situation. "Failure is normal. As long as the court does not make mistakes and the emperor does not make mistakes, how can the princes be the opponent of the court?
I raised my army to tell the world that even though the imperial court has a million troops and I only have Jiujiang County, I am still proud and unyielding, and a king cannot be insulted! "
Just as he finished speaking, he saw a crossbow arrow flying straight towards his face. Liu Qi could only stop talking and hurriedly said, "General, save me!"
“Boom!”
The crossbow arrow hit the big shield heavily, and the huge force made the shield tremble. Only then did Liu Qi slowly let out two breaths.
For a moment, there was a strange moment of peace above the noisy battlefield.
"The imperial court has issued an order to capture the King of Jiujiang alive. Ordinary soldiers will be promoted to Lang, and those with titles and official positions will be promoted three levels!"
Liu Qi heard this clearly, and a sneer flashed across his face.
If we lose the battle, we will just die. How can we be captured alive?
———
The people made a song about King Li of Jiujiang: "A foot of cloth can still be sewn; a bushel of millet can still be pounded. But the two brothers cannot get along."
This is truly absurd. - "Records of the Grand Historian: Biography of King Li of Jiujiang"
I don't know if Huo Qubing is still alive...
(End of this chapter)
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