Chapter 108: The Minister of the Orphan
Although it was already February and there were signs of spring, the heat generated by the fire in the Jiade Hall was still strong, making people feel dizzy.
Or maybe, it wasn't just the heat that made people dizzy, but also the scent of spices that spread from the walls along with the excessive heat. 1
But in Zhang Rang's opinion, Liu Hong was obviously more adaptable to this kind of environment.
He leaned back on the thick fur, a sickly look on his face, and reached out to take the memorial beside him.
In December of last year, he officially announced that the title of Guannei Hou could be bought and sold for five million coins.
Five million sounds like a lot of money, and half-price Sangong is about the same price, but it’s not a bad price either.
There are indeed some differences between the Guannei Marquis and the other marquises. For example, Qiao Yan enjoyed the Leping fief of ten thousand households, but the Guannei Marquis often had only around a thousand households. Liu Hong, who had always been stingy, set the number at eight hundred.
In addition, apart from the salary and fiefdom, they were not like Qiao Yan who had the right to control the farmers in the fiefdom.
However, for those who cannot obtain the title by making great achievements, this is a shortcut!
Not to mention that Liu Hong also said in the edict selling the title of Guannei Marquis that the Guannei Marquis also enjoyed the right to wear a gold seal and purple ribbon, and the title of marquis could be passed down from generation to generation.
Can be passed down to future generations! This is much more cost-effective than the three ministers who were often dismissed due to bad luck.
Even though after the edict was announced, many people submitted memorials to express their dissuasion to him, and there were also many people who paid to buy the position of Guannei Hou.
Naturally, Liu Hong accepted all the offers.
He wanted to support the disciples of the emperor at Hongdu Gate Academy, to support the private armies of the eight schools in Xiyuan, and to firmly grasp in his own hands a fortune that would be enough to make him feel at ease.
Only in this way can he ensure the stability of his throne and ensure that the heir he wants will eventually ascend the throne.
So much so that he didn't care at all whether this move would shake his royal dignity.
But if Qiao Yan were to say, Liu Hong's move would have little impact on her, the Marquis of Leping, who had already given herself an additional layer of protection as the Governor of Bingzhou. In fact, compared to levying taxes on the people for various reasons, it would be worse for him to sell the title of Marquis of Guannei.
At least the people don’t have to pay for this!
Leping is still exempt from donations for the past five years, but other places in Bingzhou do not have such treatment.
Selling the title of Guannei Hou, at most, means that those families in Luoyang City who have extra money and don't care about being accused of buying the title of marquis can all get a purple gold belt by relying on their money ability. When going out to socialize, you call me Zhang Hou and I call you Li Hou.
What does this have to do with Qiao Yan!
It’s enough as long as Liu Hong himself doesn’t find the scene funny.
The emperor indeed only saw the money in his hands. He flipped through the memorials and did not see any radical opposition remarks in them. Then he picked up the memorial from the governor sent by Qiao Yan.
He frowned when he saw the first line.
[In the fourth year of Guanghe, Tan Shihuai died. His son Helian was greedy, lustful and ignorant. He plundered the northern land and died. Helian's son Qianman was young, so he made Kuitou the Chanyu of Xianbei. I have known about this situation for several years in Leping, and I intended to support Qian Man to fight against Kui Tou, encourage him to fight among himself, and restore stability to Bingzhou. 】
[However, each of the three brothers of Kuitou has heroic ability. Kuitou is the Chanyu, and his second brother Fuluohan leads 10,000 soldiers and is called the Lord. The third brother Budugen also leads 10,000 soldiers and is eyeing Yanmen. If we cannot defeat this powerful force first, once the forces of the three are connected, they will have a force of 100,000. By then, Bingzhou will be difficult to defend and the three prefectures will suffer. 】
Kuitou, Fuluohan and Budugen, these are the current Xianbei Chanyu and his two equally outstanding brothers, especially the latter two.
Of course, when mentioning that each of them had tens of thousands of soldiers, and when combined their number reached 100,000, Xi Zhicai had obviously exaggerated a little bit as Qiao Yan reminded him to do "truthfully".
When Kuitou was still in the position of Chanyu, Fuluohan's treatment dared not exceed that of his brother in any way, and the title of "adult" was just a nominal designation. As for the tens of thousands of people under his command, they were at most around ten thousand.
But these days, if we expand the term a little bit and include those who are not eligible to fight in the area they rule into the team, it is not just Qiao Yan's operation.
And tripling those 10,000 people to 100,000 people is just a basic operation.
Liu Hong had heard the truth from Qiao Yan before, so he never expected that she would play a word game at this time.
He only saw the urgency of the military situation in the news.
Once Bingzhou was conquered by the Xianbei, the Xiongnu in Bingzhou would also rebel. If the two states existed independently, they might only stay north of the Taihang Mountains, but if the two states were united, the ambitious ones among them would inevitably want to try to reach the richer Sanfu and plunder it.
The "Suffering in the Three Auxiliary Prefectures" mentioned in this memorial is not impossible.
The rebellion of Zhang Ju in Yuyang has not been quelled to this day, and the Hu tribe that conspired with him was none other than the Wuhuan. This undoubtedly led Liu Hong to have some wrong perceptions of these northern Hu people.
From this perspective, Qiao Yan's previous attack on the Huns in the north was indeed a necessary thing to do.
With the current momentum of the Xianbei soldiers, if the Han Dynasty had not first crossed the Yinshan Mountains and killed the Xiutuguhu, the three brothers would have joined hands and would have raided Bingzhou without hesitation as they did in previous winters to obtain supplies for the winter. 2
It was only because he happened to appoint Qiao Yan as the governor of Bingzhou before the winter raid that the three brothers temporarily hesitated to take action. There was not much money to be made in Youzhou and Jizhou, which discouraged them.
Liu Hong felt depressed and couldn't help coughing before he continued reading.
Fortunately, the content of the letter later made him relax his brows.
When Qiao Yan said he wanted to attack the Xianbei, he did not make this decision rashly.
Despite the previous exaggeration of the Xianbei's power, the various actions in preparation for the war against the Xianbei were recorded truthfully.
For example, she mentioned that in the twelve months after she took office, she recruited temporary assistants, together with the bookkeepers, and the officials who were allowed by His Majesty to be taken away from the Taiwei Mansion, to complete the registration and inspection of the treasuries of various counties.
The specific data have been sent along with this memorial for Your Majesty's review.
No matter how you look at it, this is the action of an honest person.
Liu Hong flipped through the data and a smile appeared on his face.
Because Cui Lie was also an honest person and had reported similar data to him before, he could naturally tell whether Qiao Yan had falsified the matter.
From this it can be seen that his post as Bingzhou Mu did not let him down.
With this in mind, Liu Hong saw Qiao Yan say that part of the weapons and food in the treasury must be used as stock to support the capital at any time, part of it will be used as wages for hired workers to renovate the river during the dry season, part of it will be used for border defense expenses on the northwest border, especially for the supply of soldiers in General Du Liao's camp, part of it will be used to prepare for weather changes and disaster relief, and the last part will be the expenses of this army's march.
Faced with this most intuitive data, Qiao Yan came to the conclusion that in this battle against the Xianbei, as long as we ensured the stability of the border and sufficient supplies, we could still send out a team of nearly 10,000 people, and there would be enough food.
As for where these ten thousand people came from——
Some of them were the Black Mountain bandits and the White Wave bandits who had surrendered to them before.
Some of them were assisted by General Du Liao's camp, with Qu Yi under Han Fu as the main general.
Some of them are reasonably drawn from the border defense forces.
The rest are newly recruited soldiers. These soldiers have been trained in the winter by the Wu Meng officials left behind by the former Bingzhou governor, the newly appointed Yanmen county officials, and the Bingcao officials under the Yanmen prefect. With the overall combat quality of Bingzhou, these people will surely become a considerable fighting force by the beginning of spring.
In addition, during her previous confinement in Leping, she studied agriculture with the help of Si Sheng's book and found that adding processed animal bones to the fields could increase the fertility of the soil. During this conscription, she also announced to the public that the cattle, sheep and horses captured in the attack on the Xianbei would not be retained by the state government. The oxen would be used for farming, the sheep would be used as fertilizer, and the horses would be used to consolidate the border defense.
Precisely because of this statement, every soldier will be eager to fight, which will surely enhance the prestige of the Han Dynasty.
Out of some kind of bad taste, Qiao Yan wrote another sentence at the end of the above document written by Xi Zhicai.
[I hope Your Majesty will entrust me with the task of defeating the enemy and consolidating the border. If I fail, I will be punished...] 3
Liu Hong did not know that the Prime Minister of Shu Han, who later tried to restore the Han Dynasty, had written such a memorial before the Northern Expedition. After reading Qiao Yan's report, he only had one idea left.
This battle is indeed worth fighting!
In previous years, or to be more precise, in every December before Tan Shihuai's death, we would hear news that the Xianbei were invading Bingzhou, raiding Jiuquan, or attacking Liaodong. So why not deal them a heavy blow in the spring after they had gained nothing in the winter!
He had personally witnessed Qiao Yan's outstanding leadership skills at the Western Suburbs Camp, and he also knew about her previous military achievements.
Wu Meng, a clerk under the Bingzhou governor, has indeed guarded the border area around Yanmen tightly since he took office. If the other side had not had no background and no record of direct victories, he should have been promoted.
Now that the two have joined forces, even if the Xianbei have an army of 100,000, considering that they are scattered everywhere, they will definitely be caught off guard by our proactive attack, so it may not be impossible to achieve the feat of defending Huo!
Liu Hongqing knew that his condition was getting worse, and because of this, he had higher expectations for the sharp blade he possessed.
Just like the eight schools of Xiyuan led by Jian Shuo...
After a winter, Qiao Yan's preparations for war have been carried out in an orderly manner, and the recruitment of soldiers for the eight schools in Xiyuan has also come to an end.
Liu Hong made a review of this team directly under his jurisdiction.
Although these people came from all over the thirteen states, many of them were forced to make up the number in order to achieve the effect of recruiting soldiers. Compared with the carefully selected and well-classified elite soldiers from the five schools of the Northern Army, they were naturally a lot more chaotic, but after all, they were help that was within his reach.
Jian Shuo knew better what Liu Hong wanted to see, so he simply put Xu Chu, who was recruited by Cao Cao from Qiao County, and the 300 people from the Xu clan who came with him at the front.
This team looks a bit rustic, but also has a heroic spirit.
The eight schools in Xiyuan are like this, so Qiao Yan, who can defeat the captains of the eight schools, should not disappoint her expectations.
He no longer hesitated and wrote the approval of "permitting war" at the end of the memorial.
After writing the two words in red, he suddenly felt that he had a little more strength.
Perhaps his condition would improve a lot by the spring, and if he consulted the Imperial Medical Bureau at that time, he might be able to live another five years, instead of being like some of the most courageous bastards who said that if he didn't take care of his health, he might not live more than two years.
If I had five years...
"Your Majesty, the prince is here to greet you."
Upon hearing this, Liu Hong withdrew his thoughts and handed the reply to Qiao Yan's memorial to the eunuch beside him, ordering him to send the message out and have someone send it to Bingzhou on a fast horse. Then he had Liu Xie brought in.
Everyone in the hall could see that with the arrival of Lord Dong, Liu Hong's face revealed an undisguised joy.
The reason why His Majesty favored Liu Xie was not just because Liu Xie lost his mother shortly after he was born and was an obviously weak person, nor was it because he was younger than Liu Bian.
When Liu Xie walked into the Jiade Hall, the little prince, who was only nine years old this year, had already shown a calm and dignified demeanor. Because of this demeanor, the more Liu Hong looked at him, the more he felt that Liu Xie was similar to himself, and was far more likable than the cowardly Liu Bian.
Liu Hong would never think that this deviation in temperament was caused by his agreement to raise Liu Bian in the home of Taoist Shi Zimiao because many princes died young in their early years.
He waved to Liu Xie, motioning him to sit next to him.
At such a close distance, it was not difficult for Liu Xie to distinguish the lingering smell of medicine in the air, but as wise as he was, he did not say these things at this time to upset Liu Hong. He just said that he had paid his respects to Empress Dowager Dong today, and that the Empress Dowager was in good health because of his father's support. Then he talked about what books he had read today, and then he said:
"I am learning swordsmanship from Master Wang, but I am still too young to be a warrior and help my father."
The Master Wang he was talking about was none other than the contemporary famous swordsman Wang Yue.
Because Wang Yue had ambitions to become an official, Liu Hong simply made him the sword-master to teach the two princes. However, it was obvious that Liu Xie was more interested in this than Liu Bian. 4
As a loyal lover of the balance of power, Liu Hong naturally knew one thing: as an emperor, without enough courage, it would be impossible for him to maintain his foundation among the various forces. Now both sons are too young, but at least Liu Xie's courage makes him feel more happy.
Or perhaps, because he himself was seriously ill, he wanted to see his son healthy and strong.
He replied, "If you are learning swordsmanship, you should proceed step by step. How can you complete a year's work in one day? Even though Shi A from Henan Province has an extraordinary talent for swordsmanship, he cannot master swordsmanship in one day. He can only learn the method."
"What the emperor said is true."
"You can go now. I don't need you to share my worries now. My father has his own generals and loyal ministers." Liu Hong patted Liu Xie on the shoulder and motioned him to leave.
Although the young Liu Xie felt that his father's tone was a little strange when he mentioned the word "general", he did not hear any other meaning in the words and retreated according to his father's wishes.
How could he know that Bao Hong, the military captain who was sent by Liu Hong to quell the Gepo rebellion a few days ago, was suddenly accused of embezzling military rations.
If there had not been so many twists and turns during the selection of the Eight Schools of Xiyuan, with Liu Hong's extremely petty personality, he would have executed Bao Hong directly. But now he felt that someone was restraining his hands and feet everywhere, so after learning the news, he first looked for people to investigate and actually found He Miao's subordinates.
He did not get angry with He Miao, but he kept He Jin in mind as well.
This stupid method could obviously only be thought up by the two brothers of the He family!
After this incident, he became more and more certain. He was afraid that he could not allow any progress to continue. Otherwise, once Liu Bian succeeded to the throne, this extremely arrogant relative would inevitably become a threat to the imperial power.
In comparison, Dong Zhong, whom he promoted to the position of General of Cavalry, seemed much more obedient and more in line with his positioning of his foreign relatives.
But in order to help Liu Xie ascend to the throne, not only did he have to live as many years as possible, but because He Jin and Queen He were already powerful, he also had to leave Liu Xie enough evidence of their power, or remove all obstacles before his death.
Thinking of the report sent by Qiao Yan earlier, Liu Hong pondered for a long time and slowly said: "Empress Zhang..."
Zhang Rang quickly responded "Yes".
"Do you think that, apart from Jian Shuo, Qiao Yeshu could be the minister I can entrust to take care of my son?"
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