Chapter 236: The Highest Position in the Country...
Order the general and the cavalry general to hunt in Hanzhong!
Judging from the literal meaning, this seems to be asking Qiao Yan and Liu Yan to launch a joint encirclement and suppression of Zhang Lu.
But the prey being hunted in Hanzhong this time, is it Zhang Lu, who was called an unforgivable criminal by Qiao Yan, or Liu Yan, who has a rebellious heart? Most of the people present are not stupid, and they can hear the underlying meaning.
Of course it’s Liu Yan!
But since they were sending troops under the guise of sending the general and the cavalry general to encircle and suppress the rebellion, at least in name, they had not yet torn their faces with Liu Yan.
"Hunting..." Huangfu Song repeated the word in his mouth, and suddenly laughed out loud: "Great! What a great hunting!"
The last time Qiao Yan mentioned the word "hunting meeting" was when she claimed that she was going to hunt with Han Sui in Jincheng.
But she did not give Han Sui the opportunity to "hunt" at that time.
After she bypassed Longxi County and captured Ma Teng first, Han Sui was left with only a dead end surrounded on all sides.
Today, her words were pronounced clearly, and she clearly had the same proud attitude.
Although they are hunting, it doesn't seem difficult to guess who is the dominant one.
This was not about discussing with Liu Yan to take down Zhang Lu in Hanzhong.
Instead, they wanted to advance the troops from Guanzhong into Hanzhong before Liu Yan received the message of encirclement and hunting from Chang'an, giving Liu Yan the illusion that they were about to march south and go anywhere!
In order to eliminate Liu Yan's arrogance towards the throne of emperor in one fell swoop.
However--
Even Prime Minister Wang Yun felt at this time that their condemnation and attack on Liu Yan was not in line with the current situation.
Even His Majesty Liu Yu was hesitant about whether to hold Liu Yan accountable.
So what would Liu Yan himself think?
He never expected to face such a heavy blow!
This is exactly what Liu Yan thought at this time.
On the one hand, he ordered people to check whether the fire in the Yizhou provincial government treasury was an accident or man-made. On the other hand, he was worried about whether there was any concrete evidence taken away by the envoys from Chang'an after Dong Fu's former residence was burned down.
But as he thought about it, he realized that he didn't need to be so panicked.
Even if his plans in his early years were exposed to Liu Yu and Qiao Yan, when the other side had a more important opponent, would they have the opportunity to ignore the threats from Yecheng and Youzhou, ignore the waiting and waiting of Liu Biao, Yuan Shu and others, ignore the arrangements for spring plowing in the interior, and invade Yizhou unscrupulously?
They are just afraid that they can't do this!
The most that can be said now is that they have made their intentions clear to each other, but the friendly relationship that should be maintained on the surface will not be affected in any way by this unexpected confession.
At the very least, they have to wait until they and the Yecheng court decide who is superior, and then they will have enough time to compete with Yizhou.
But thinking about the fact that Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shao were not easy to deal with, Liu Yan felt that this process would take at least five years.
By that time, relying on his division of the Yizhou people and support for the Dongzhou scholars, he had already firmly grasped the entire Yizhou in his own hands, and perhaps he would even have enough spare energy to further bring Yizhou's Bandunman and other southern barbarians under his control.
At most, in the current situation where the enemy is strong and we are weak, he cannot completely anger the Chang'an court with words.
After all, the position of general that he held was given up by Qiao Yan, a victorious general who was so young that people could not help but suspect that she would act on impulse.
Considering the likes of Han Sui and Dong Zhuo who were defeated by her with great force, Liu Yan felt that it would be better for him not to follow in their footsteps and to leave some buffer space between them.
That's enough.
When he told his subordinates about this idea, Zhao Wei, who was present at the scene, couldn't help but reveal a hint of joy on his face.
It seemed that the arrangements he had made had worked at this point.
He really wanted to suggest to Liu Yan at this time that he should send the eldest son to Chang'an as an official so as to temporarily put an end to this situation that was known to both parties.
If such an action was taken, it might be possible to confuse the people in Chang'an, making them think that Liu Yan only held such an idea before Liu Yu proclaimed himself emperor in Chang'an. Now this plan has been given up.
But after this pretext is thrown out, whether to be a king or a minister is still a matter to be decided based on the development of the situation!
The initiative is also in the hands of Yizhou themselves!
After all, Liu Yan had four sons by his side, so it was not such a pity that his eldest son went to the capital.
If we ignore the arrow wound Liu Yan suffered in his early years, he was still at the prime of his life for a politician, and there was no need to worry about any accidents that might happen when his eldest son was not around.
However, Zhao Wei was afraid that if he appeared too active, Liu Yan, who was particularly sensitive to balancing the forces in Yizhou, would notice his abnormality and then associate it with the fire in the state capital. Therefore, he had to remain silent for the time being.
What Zhao Wei didn't expect was that Liu Yan would actually say at this time: "Do you think that if I send my youngest son to Chang'an to study, can it be considered as a bargaining chip to ease the relationship?"
Zhao Wei: “…”
etc! This, this is different from what he had expected?
According to normal people's thinking logic, progressive development should occur at this time.
If Liu Yan had already reached an agreement with Chang'an before, and exchanged Liu Zhang as a hostage for the position of the general, he should not have said this now!
In the blink of an eye, Zhao Wei made a judgment that he found a little unbelievable:
The news he had received earlier that Liu Yan was going to send Liu Zhang to Chang'an was most likely false, and was released by the envoy who came to Chang'an!
But if that's the case, what on earth did he do before?
In order to change Liu Yan's decision to send Liu Zhang to Sili as a hostage, he presented Liu Yan's little calculations and the factional struggles within Yizhou, as well as the possible problems in Liu Yan's choice of successor, to the envoys from Chang'an.
However, in fact, Liu Yan seemed to have never considered this at all!
Before this, Zhao Wei had only made a one-sided guess based on the few words he got from the envoy.
Because the other party came with the imperial edict appointing Liu Yan as the general, and because they were most likely unaware of the secret of Liu Yan's entry into Yizhou, Zhao Wei never suspected that they would fabricate such false news.
In fact, if he had not jumped into the trap, the other party's false news would have been exposed after they left Yizhou.
But now...
It was not the envoy's pretentiousness that became a laughing stock within Yizhou, but that Zhao Wei made a move that was absolutely not beneficial to Yizhou. He even thought that what he did was just to seek enough benefits for the people of Yizhou!
This terrifying speculation that was very likely to happen made Zhao Wei's face change.
But at this moment he couldn't tell Liu Yan about this matter at all, and instead had to suppress his expression.
Even though he eliminated all the evidence that Liu Yan had treasonous intentions, this was still an act of crossing the line that he carried out without notifying Liu Yan.
Who knows if his actions would give Liu Yan the opportunity to carry out a third purge of the Yizhou scholars!
Zhao Wei was alert and made a decision immediately.
He would never say that he did this!
Even though he knew that he had fallen into the trap set by the envoy from Chang'an, he could only pretend that he had never done such a thing to harm himself.
But what he probably would not have expected was that with his full support, not only was Liu Yan's ambition exposed to the emperor and his ministers in Chang'an, but it also gave Qiao Yan the opportunity to propose the plan of hunting in Hanzhong.
It was precisely because of the disloyalty of Liu Yan, the "great general", that after the strategy of sending troops to Hanzhong first was finalized, the court in Chang'an also considered another issue that was extremely beneficial to Qiao Yan.
The so-called hunting meeting is, of course, a call for dispatch from people of higher status to those of lower status.
Judging from the current situation, there is no way they would allow Liu Yan to impose control on Qiao Yan.
If this is true, it would be somewhat inconsistent with their intention of "hunting in Hanzhong".
However, under the current official system, the general is ranked above the three highest officials.
If they maintained the status quo of not breaking up with Liu Yan, Liu Yu himself would probably have to lead the army in person to achieve this goal.
But Liu Yu's ability to fight in person had been fully demonstrated in his confrontation with Gongsun Zan.
He can command troops, but cannot win.
Therefore, it is obviously not feasible for the emperor to lead the army in person.
As the people's livelihood in Chang'an had finally been stabilized, it was not appropriate to let Liu Yu travel, but the emperor should continue to stay in the central government.
Is there any way to change this situation?
It really does exist!
Just promote Qiao Yan's status above Liu Yan.
But above the general and below the emperor, there is only one position nowadays.
Grand Marshal.
This position was originally held by Liu Yan, but he was replaced after Liu Yu ascended the throne. Now if it falls to Qiao Yan, who should have been the general...
Because Liu Yan coveted the position of emperor, no one thought there was anything wrong with this.
What's more, they had previously thought that Qiao Yan was qualified to take on the position of general, which actually placed her above everyone else.
It was clearly imperative to let her take one step further and ascend to the position of Grand Marshal in order to exert control over Liu Yan, a not-so-safe relative of the Han dynasty!
Huang Wan did not intend to defend his cousin. Instead, he only wanted to untie the relationship with him. It was for this reason that he made the suggestion at the first opportunity.
The emperor issued an edict, and at the same time as the order to hunt Hanzhong was issued, Qiao Yan was promoted to the position of Grand Marshal!
Let her title of "Grand Sima", which was previously just an additional title for the General of Cavalry, become the real Grand Sima, the highest position among ministers!
"This matter..." is not possible.
Before Qiao Yan could finish his words, Lu Zhi interrupted him. "Does Ye Shu want to see General Liu Yan, who is defeated after our attack on Hanzhong, also have the reputation of challenging you and holding you accountable?"
"Or does Ye Shu want to see the Yecheng court question our way of dealing with things without distinguishing between friends and enemies, and become a laughing stock for them?"
"Or maybe you want to see Liu Yan, just as you imagined, resting and growing in a place as safe as Yizhou, with thousands of miles of fertile land, and become a thorn in our side?"
After Lu Zhi asked these three questions, he turned to Liu Yu and said, "I hope Your Majesty will consider this proposal. The title of Grand Marshal is not an usurpation, but it is for capable people to take it, so that military generals will obey and civil officials will follow, so that cunning officials will not hide their feelings and evil people will not bend the law, so that the people will live in peace and prosperity and the army will be powerful."
Faced with the hidden danger of suppressing Yizhou, Qiao Yan's promotion is undoubtedly the best solution they can come up with. It can also turn this hunting party into a situation where the Grand Marshal invites the general to hunt down the villain Zhang Lu, and then they can laugh and deter others after destroying the enemy leader.
Lu Zhi understood this principle.
How could Liu Yu not understand?
As early as when Qiao Yan humbly gave up the position of general to Liu Yan, he felt that she was very sorry for the efforts she had made for the foundation of the Han Dynasty. That was why he gave her the fake imperial seal, the title of Sima, and allowed her to set up a government office in the name of General of Cavalry.
Now that she could legitimately take on the title of Grand Marshal, Liu Yu's sense of guilt completely disappeared.
It's supposed to be like this!
What's more, if it were someone like Wang Mang or Huo Guang, when they served as Grand Marshals, people would feel that they were intimidating the imperial power, but what about Qiao Yan?
No one present dared to say that she was not a loyal subject of the Han Dynasty!
If we count from the time when the Yellow Turban Rebellion began, the contributions she made to the Han Dynasty in the past eight years are more than what others have done in decades. So why can't her status be worthy of what she has done?
Since it is impossible for her to replace the Han Dynasty, the Grand Marshal is the most suitable position!
So two days later, the people of Chang'an heard a special drum-beating announcement of an imperial decree.
Because Leping Hou Qiao Yan performed his duties loyally for the Han Dynasty and devoted himself to the revival of the Han Dynasty, he was restored to the position of Grand Marshal above the Three Dukes and the Generalissimo, and was given overall control of military and political power.
The common people did not quite understand the meaning of the change from Grand Marshal and General of the Cavalry to Grand Marshal. Some even felt that the removal of four words meant something was missing.
But when he heard the announcement that this was a promotion for the Bingzhou governor who pacified Chang'an, and thought about the changes in their lives in the past six months, he couldn't help but applaud.
But this canonization without four words means much more to Qiao Yan than that.
At this time, in the Zichen Hall, she was already wearing official uniform, listening to the reading of the imperial edict from above.
"I will follow the will of Heaven and accept this mission."
"In the second month of the first year of Jian'an... an imperial edict was issued to General of the Cavalry and Marquis of Leping Qiao Yan, governor of Bingzhou."
"You have been appointed governor of the state since the Zhongping period, commanding the army and pacifying distant places. Although there were Hu Rong invaders on the border, many of them were tough and ferocious, but there were also some who wore armor and chased the Chanyu in the wild at night. You have been appointed officials for virtue, not for personal integrity."1
"At the end of the Zhongping period, Dong was a scourge. You set an example by upholding the proper attire and honoring the Han Dynasty. You led the army to fight the bandits, led the White Feathered Guards, and with your flags and banners, you swept away the bandits and forced the bandit leader to flee westward."
"He also drove his long chariot with his spears blazing, and reached Xiliang, where he raised his eagle-like wings and sang loudly, and put down the Qiang rebellion."
"During the Guangxi years, he remained as kind-hearted as a jade pot, loyal and brave, and had great power in Guanzhong. He was observant of everything, guarded Juyong, and his reputation spread throughout the nine barbarians..."
"I hold the heart to praise virtue and reward talent. I consider your loyalty and uprightness in guarding the country, your spreading virtue and kindness, your integrity and friendship, and your efforts to ensure the safety of the country. I hereby appoint you as the Grand Marshal. I respect you very much!"
As the last word was finalized, Qiao Yan raised his hand and carefully took the imperial edict from the hands of Grand Herald Chen Ji.
On the day Liu Yu ascended the throne, she had already taken his sword from his hand, just like when the emperor ascended the throne in the early Han Dynasty, the general took Emperor Gaozu's snake-slaying sword from the emperor, meaning that she was going to pave the way for the court and conquer the four directions.
And now, at the ceremony of being conferred the title of Grand Marshal, she took over the imperial flag and staff from Liu Yu to show her honor.
This imperial decree of the Grand Marshal is as follows:
From today on, she is the number one person under the Emperor in terms of both status and authority!
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