Chapter 244 How to Reward
It’s not Huangfu Song’s fault for making such a guess, since Qiao Yan never plays by the rules.
In the battle of Gaoping City that year, despite the strong fortifications, she was able to complete the operation to wipe out the Qiang people in the city.
In the autumn of the same year, she successfully bypassed Longxi and defeated Ma Teng, and then advanced to Jincheng in the heart of Huangshui. Han Sui, who felt that his situation was safe, was killed by his subordinates and his head was sent to her.
Huangfu Song saw all this with his own eyes. So, is Liu Yan really safe in Chengdu?
To attack Yizhou from the territory they currently occupy, one route is to go through Hanzhong first and then continue south from Ba County, but there is another route which is to go through Wudu County.
At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, when Emperor Taizu Gaozu entered Guanzhong, he openly repaired the plank road but secretly passed through Chencang. Even now, it is not impossible to hold a hunting meeting in Hanzhong openly, but actually enter Wudu from Chencang and then go south to Yizhou.
Anyway, it’s not like Qiao Yan hasn’t done this kind of thing before.
What's more, the amount of food she brought back was really astonishing.
Judging from the grain production situation in Yizhou, it might be possible to accumulate such a large amount of grain because it was the least affected by disasters and wars.
But no matter how Huangfu Song thought about it, he felt that having such a sum of food and allowing Qiao Yan to take it away were two completely different things.
It is very likely that Qiao Yan put the knife to Liu Yan's neck and asked him to take it out.
His question caused the court to fall into silence.
Everyone looked at each other, and when they thought about the amount of inventory in the Guanzhong granary, they all felt that this guess made some sense.
It was the messenger's voice that broke these people's useless imagination, "Your Majesty and Liu Yizhou were drinking and chatting happily, and it was Liu Yizhou who proposed to send such a large amount of food to reward the army, and Your Majesty also brought 200,000 dan of Hanzhong's grain reserves, which made it a million dan."
Huangfu Song: “…”
Take the statement of drinking and chatting happily. If it was between Liu Yu and Liu Yan, they might still believe it, but when it was between Qiao Yan and Liu Yan, it always made people feel an indescribable sense of disillusionment.
The messenger continued, "Liu Yizhou also sent textile craftsmen, Shu brocade, water conservancy experts, bamboo from Shu, and even Hanzhong..."
Facing the incredulous looks of these high-ranking officials, he said the second half of the sentence, "Even Hanzhong asked the emperor to send people to garrison there. He himself does not have the ability to govern it."
It is hard to say what others are thinking, but the one who felt most like he was talking in his sleep at this moment was undoubtedly Qi Zhou, who had traveled to Yizhou first.
When he heard the messenger's words, he was completely confused.
Was he such a good person when he met Liu Yan in Chengdu earlier?
Probably not.
If Liu Yan was so indifferent to wealth and had no material desires, he probably would not have built himself a thousand-chariot vehicle that was suspected of being usurpatory. Even the buildings in the provincial capital of Chengdu were extremely luxurious.
And if Liu Yan did not mind handing over the territory of Yizhou to someone else, he probably would not have needed to dispatch all the prefects in Yizhou to Chengdu to watch the ceremony when he accepted the title of general, to show that he had the authority in his hands.
unless……
Lu Zhi asked, "How many days did the Grand Marshal take to attack Hanzhong?"
Lu Zhi was still able to guess Liu Yan's thoughts.
There is only one possibility for such a person to be given such a generous gift and even to promise to cede Hanzhong out of Yizhou.
Under the circumstance that Qiao Yan had not yet torn her relationship with Liu Yan, her method of shaking the mountain to scare the tiger had a very significant effect.
The Battle of Hanzhong will definitely end especially quickly!
The messenger replied: "If we count from the time we entered Hanzhong, it has been less than six days."
As soon as this answer was given, everyone gasped.
Knowing that Qiao Yan was a master at using troops, and hearing with one's own ears how quickly he took Hanzhong were not the same thing.
What does it mean to pacify Hanzhong in six days?
Even if every city they passed by could open its gates to meet the enemy, those who refused to obey the king's discipline would be picked out from other soldiers and punished. They would be fought from one end of the Hanzhong Plain to the other. This was probably the time it took.
But it is obvious that Zhang Lu, Zhang Xiu and others in Hanzhong would never surrender like this.
Zhang Lu was driven back to Hanzhong from Wudu County by Qiao Yan at the beginning of January.
Since he knew clearly that he would not get any good results under Qiao Yan's hands, he would naturally not take the move of opening the city to welcome the enemy.
Zhang Xiu, who was in Hanzhong with him, was also classified as a rebel during the Yellow Turban Rebellion. He was defeated by Liu Yan and became his vassal. His offensiveness was very obvious.
But these two people not only did not cause any trouble to Qiao Yan, but instead helped her to quickly capture Hanzhong and intimidate Liu Yan.
The result of "less than six days" makes it easy to imagine the results of the two of them.
So much so that when the messenger later told them that Zhang Lu had fled and Zhang Xiu had died, everyone had only one thought in their minds: "As expected."
However, this does not solve one question: how did she do it?
Unfortunately, this messenger followed Xun You all the way, so it was a bit difficult for him to explain clearly what happened.
If he had to say something, he could only say that they entered Hanzhong from Luogu Road, and the journey was extremely smooth as if they were assisted by God. Even the snakes and insects in the mountains took detours to avoid them, and one of them even fell headfirst into the hot pot.
They then headed straight for Chenggu County and captured the central county seat of the Hanzhong Plain.
After dividing the troops into four routes, Zhang Lu led 6,000 troops through Chenggu City and marched towards Longting. A day later, Zhang Lu fled back to Chenggu, and when he thought this place was still where he belonged, he was ambushed by people in the city.
Zhang Xiu died on the spot, while Zhang Lu fled back to Nanzheng.
But two days later, we heard that Nanzheng and Mianyang, the two most important pass cities to Hanzhong, had fallen under their control.
It would be better not to explain this.
Every word doesn't sound like something that could happen in reality.
It seems that we still have to wait for Qiao Yan to give an answer.
Fortunately, she was almost arriving in Chang'an.
The one million dan of military rations delivered to Chang'an was indeed a reassurance to the people.
"The Han Dynasty is very fortunate to have such a powerful army." Liu Yu couldn't help but sigh.
The court had been temporarily adjourned at this time, and he said this to his subordinate Xianyu Fu.
After he finished speaking, he frowned and said, "Before the Grand Marshal returns to Chang'an, there is one more thing that needs to be decided first."
There was no need for Qiao Yan to lie about his military achievements. It can be seen that his military achievements in conquering Hanzhong in six days and threatening Liu Yan so that he would not dare to act rashly were real.
Although before the hunting meeting in Hanzhong, in order to make Qiao Yan's status higher than that of the great general Liu Yan, she was given the title of Grand Marshal, but when she returned with a great victory in Hanzhong and such considerable spoils, Liu Yu could not ignore her contribution.
She should be rewarded no matter what, so that people will feel that she deserves the reward for her meritorious service.
Under the current situation, it is necessary to give sufficient rewards to the military generals in order to make them sincerely submit.
But the question is, if we want to reward Qiao Yan, how should we reward him?
She has almost reached the point where there is no more room for containment!
If we talk about titles, among the five ranks of marquis, county marquis is the highest.
In the early years of the Han Dynasty, because the capital at that time was not moved from Chang'an to Luoyang, "Guan Nei" was the foot of the emperor, and the status of the Marquis of Guannei was higher than that of the Marquis outside the Guanwai. According to this statement, Liu Yu could change Qiao Yan's Leping Marquis to Guannei, and also choose a county, and even increase the number of households he could govern.
For example, Huangfu Song’s title of Huaili Hou was a typical Guannei Hou.
But at the end of the fourth year of Zhongping, Emperor Ling of Han came up with a new way to make money, which was called buying and selling Guannei Hou.
This operation resulted in a significant reduction in the value of Guannei Hou.
If Liu Yu really changed Qiao Yan's title from Marquis of Leping to Marquis of Huayin, others might think that he was not trying to win her over, but making an enemy of her.
And in terms of official position, she is already ranked among the highest among the officials.
The position of Grand Marshal at this time was originally meant to show that above the Three Dukes and the Generalissimo, there was another high-ranking official who was in charge of military and political affairs.
According to the rule of the Han Dynasty that people of different surnames could not become kings, if she were to be promoted to a higher position, she would become the emperor.
So of course I can’t get promoted.
Liu Yu hesitated and asked his subordinates, "If we just give her an additional fief, will it seem that this reward is not sincere enough?"
This concern is correct.
The reason why Leping was able to gather more population in the past few years was entirely due to Qiao Yan's achievements here. It had nothing to do with the imperial court. Instead, it was the imperial court that needed her to come to the rescue.
Then how dare they say that adding more people who originally belonged to your territory as your fiefdom subjects would be regarded as a reward for you for expanding the territory by an entire county?
Although Xianyu Fu had complicated feelings towards Qiao Yan and was worried that sooner or later the world would only know the Grand Marshal but not the Emperor, he was still clear-headed.
If only the fiefdom is increased, it is indeed not enough to be considered as merit.
And they faced another problem.
If the Han Dynasty were to reunite the world, Qiao Yan would have to face Yuan Shao, Gongsun Zan and others in the east.
There will be rewards for conquering Hanzhong, but will there be rewards for conquering Yuan Shao?
Of course it is necessary!
Therefore, they must set a highest reward standard at this time, and then accumulate to this level step by step. Otherwise, sooner or later one day there will be no more rewards to be given and some disaster will occur.
Xian Yu Fu bowed to Liu Yu and replied, "Your Majesty, you can only increase the fief of Leping Marquis this time, but you can ask me later whether Leping Marquis can follow the example of Prime Minister Xiao in the past."
Why do you want to emulate Prime Minister Xiao?
Let Liu Yu treat Qiao Yan with reference to Liu Bang's treatment of Xiao He -
He did not need to name his name when praising or bowing, nor did he need to rush forward when entering the court, but he went into the palace with a sword and shoes on!
This rule is equivalent to removing the powerful official from the formal etiquette of attending court.
Ceremonial officials are only referred to by their official titles and not by their names. When attending court, they do not have to walk quickly with small steps. They can wear swords and shoes when entering the hall.
The one who got this permission is probably an even more powerful official than the Grand Marshal!
In fact, when Dong Zhuo first arrived in Luoyang to serve as regent and support Liu Xie to ascend the throne, he ordered Liu Xie to allow him to enter the palace with a sword and shoes. Compared with the title of Grand Marshal, this special treatment was more of a dangerous signal.
Among the domineering relatives of the emperor during the Western Han Dynasty and the Later Han Dynasty, several of them received such treatment.
But Xianyu Fu said that he was "imitating the deeds of Prime Minister Xiao", which slightly changed the nature of this action.
Xiao He certainly did not rebel against the Han Dynasty. He even served as a minister of Emperor Hui of Han for two years after Liu Bang's death, and was finally given the posthumous title of "Wenzhong".
Judging from the age difference between Liu Yu and Qiao Yan, Liu Yu would inevitably die before Qiao Yan. This statement, which imitates the story of Xiao He, is not wrong.
Seeing that Liu Yu was a little moved, Xian Yu Fu said, "It is not appropriate to give such a reward for the Battle of Hanzhong this time, because the battle before the Grand Marshal's advance was just a hunting contest. If he is promoted again, it will completely push Liu Yizhou to the opposite side. But if he wins the next battle, he can be used."
"Besides, the Grand Marshal has no more room to be promoted, but her subordinates are OK. Your Majesty might as well start from there."
There are quite a few independent generals under Qiao Yan's command. Zhang Liao, who is guarding Juyongguan in Youzhou, and Zhao Yun, who assisted Qiao Yan in sending troops to Hanzhong, are both outstanding among them.
If it weren't for Zhang Liao's timely rescue, Liu Yu would probably have died on Binhai Road like his brother-in-law and became Gongsun Zan's military achievement. How could he still sit on the throne of the Han emperor as he did now?
However, Zhang Liao's current position is still the Wumeng official in Bingzhou, which is really not worthy of his military achievements.
Is promoting Qiao Yan's subordinates considered a reward for her? It should also be counted.
Liu Yu was determined in his heart, "I'll do as you say."
"No need to name her name when praising or bowing, no need to rush when entering the court, and wearing a sword and shoes when entering the palace" can be given in batches as rewards for defeating Gongsun Zan, Yuan Shao and others, and perhaps she can be given some other special treatments.
In addition, Leping's fiefdom was gradually increased without exceeding the standards of previous Han dynasties.
As for the official appointments given to her subordinates, Qiao Yan would consult her after returning to Chang'an to avoid any mistakes in the appointments.
That's it!
Liu Yu solved a big problem and felt much more relieved.
He suddenly thought of something and asked Xian Yu Fu, "Speaking of which, if I remember correctly, in addition to conferring titles on the subordinates of the ministers, promoting the officials' family members is also a method. Why didn't you suggest that I appoint the talents from the Qiao family in Yanzhou?"
Xian Yu Fu shook his head: "If Your Majesty really did this, it would probably be more like an act of making enemies than conferring the title of Guannei Marquis on someone."
Liu Yu was surprised: "Why is this?"
Xian Yufu replied, "There was a commotion in the Grand Marshal's Mansion a while ago. I heard the noise and took the Jinwu Guards over. They said that the children of the Qiao family in Yanzhou were intercepted outside by the Grand Minister of Agriculture and the Grand Marshal's Mansion Chief Clerk. Chief Clerk Guo said that because the Grand Marshal had not returned from the expedition to Hanzhong, there were many military secrets in the Grand Marshal's Mansion that should not be seen by outsiders."
"If you ask me, this reason is reasonable. The Qiao family of Yanzhou came to Chang'an at this time, and Yanzhou was subordinate to the court of Yecheng. Who can tell whether they came to recommend themselves or to be spies? The chief secretary of the Grand Marshal's Mansion also arranged for them to stay in the post house and arranged for their food, clothing and daily life. This is the most appropriate treatment. But they said that they were not outsiders. It was Chief Secretary Guo and his men who acted rashly without consulting the Grand Marshal and were disrespectful to them."
"Guo Changshi directly had them sent to the military settlement to do forced labor on the pretext of disturbing the order in Chang'an. He said that he would argue with the other party about the right and wrong when the Grand Marshal came back, and at worst, he would lose his head. Anyway, he followed the rules that the Grand Marshal had said before he left—"
"No one is allowed to set foot in the military secret area, unless it is the emperor himself."
Xian Yu Fu had no choice but to do as he was told.
Since the matter had not been concluded yet and was also considered a family matter, Xianyu Fu did not tell Liu Yu about it yet.
Now seeing that he was about to give Qiao an official title, he quickly spoke out.
He said, "In my opinion, Your Majesty should not interfere in this matter. The Qiao family of Yanzhou may cause some conflicts with the Grand Marshal. The Grand Marshal has not had much contact with them, so there is no guarantee that he will not do something to sacrifice his relatives for the sake of justice. If you really give them official titles, it will be a real enemy instead of a reward."
"You're right," Liu Yu nodded, "Let's not get involved in this matter."
It is better to choose a safer way of rewarding rather than get involved in such family affairs.
On the second day after the messenger arrived in Chang'an, Qiao Yan led his troops and the huge grain carts to Chang'an.
In order to show his appreciation to the Grand Marshal for promoting the power of the Han court in this battle, Liu Yu personally went out of the city to welcome him.
What the people who were watching along the street saw was the high-spirited Marquis of Leping dismounting from his horse, holding the staff in his hand, and bowing before the emperor, he said in a loud voice:
"I have entered Hanzhong with my troops and have fortunately fulfilled my mission. Today I have obtained a million grains, which I will present to Chang'an."
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