The World of Yellow Sky

Chapter 824

In the seventh year of Chuping (196), March [-]st.

It is actually not correct to say that, a month ago was indeed the seventh year of Chuping.

But right now it should be the first year of Zhang Wu.

Because Chuping's year name had been abolished a month ago.

The new year name is designated as "Zhang Wu"!
Over the past month, earth-shaking changes have taken place within the Han Empire, and there have been endless debates and discussions in the court.

The entire Chendu is now in an extremely dull state, everyone's faces are covered with clouds, and there is no smile.

The changes that have taken place in Chendu in the past month are even more dramatic than the changes when the news of the Northern Expedition's failure came.

As long as you are a little more careful, you will find that there are obviously more guards in the Chendu Palace than before, and all the guards in the four cities have been replaced by guards from the imperial army. More and more soldiers are patrolling the streets and alleys, and the interval between their patrols is increasing. getting shorter and shorter.

The people in the streets, squares and cities did not dare to gather together again, and even refused to talk about it as much as possible. As soon as they saw the soldiers approaching, the ordinary people immediately stopped talking and stopped, waiting until the patrolling soldiers came. Dare to act after the pawns have passed.

Three or more people are regarded as a gathering, and they may be interrogated by soldiers. If there is something wrong, they may be taken into the government office for detailed investigation.

In the past month, a large number of messengers on fast horses have been entering and leaving Chendu, and many gorgeously decorated carriages have rushed to Chendu from other places.

Everyone smelled something abnormal, and heavy clouds were lingering over Chen Du.

The child's hour has passed, the crows are silent and the magpie is still, and there is no sound.

As the capital of the Han Empire today, Chendu still implements a strict curfew system.

Outside Ting Wei's mansion, the lights were dim, and there were only two soldiers in Zhajia guarding the door with waist knives.

At the end of the street, several lanterns were floating in mid-air, and they were slowly drifting towards this side. The two soldiers guarding outside Tingwei's Mansion didn't pay much attention to them. They knew that they were patrolling soldiers in Chendu City. City soldiers, during this period of time, Chen Du is really not peaceful.

"Ta Tata..."

The sound of footsteps came from far to near, and a group of fully armed Han soldiers with feathers in their helmets walked slowly past Tingwei Mansion.

The leader of the Han Army Captain glanced at the Tingwei Mansion next to him. At this time, there were several pavilions in the Tingwei Mansion that were still lit, and those pavilions attracted his attention.

But soon the commander of the Han army looked away again, he only needed to ensure the safety of this area, and it was not unusual for the lights to be on in Ting Wei's mansion.

The north wind is swift. Although it is already March, the weather shows no signs of warming up. The north wind blowing is even colder than usual.

Li Cheng stood in front of the window, through the gap of the window, silently watching the group of patrolling soldiers walking slowly on the road.

The changes that took place in Chen Du put him under tremendous pressure.

As Tingwei Youping, he was in charge of the Imperial Prison. In the past month, the number of people in the Imperial Prison was not just a little bit.

Due to the recent changes in the capital, the number of soldiers patrolling the city has doubled, and there is an undercurrent in Chendu.

Several intelligence offices of Yingwei in Chendu were investigated and dealt with, and the blaze and the shrill whistle lingered over Chendu City.

The stern whistle was a warning from him, telling the intelligence office that it was destroyed, and warning those who hadn't been discovered to lurk well.

During this period of time, Li Cheng didn't know whether he would still be on his bed when he opened his eyes after sleeping.

Maybe one day, after his contact person is caught, those embroidered clothes envoys will rush into Tingwei's mansion to arrest him, and put him in the dark prison.

Every time Li Cheng heard that shrill whistle, it was difficult for Li Cheng to keep calm.

But he had to keep calm, and if he was spotted, it would be the same to wait for his end.

The identity of Tingwei Youping can't protect him, and Wang Yun won't protect him either.

After staying in Chen Du for so many years and having been immersed in the imperial court for a long time, Li Cheng knew very well that he was just a pawn in Wang Yun's eyes, who could be kicked away when he was useful and useless.

The footsteps gradually faded away, and Li Cheng waited until the team of patrolling soldiers completely disappeared at the end of the road and the light completely disappeared in front of his eyes, then he looked away.

Turning around and walking back to the desk, after a moment of silence, Li Cheng took out a piece of clean silk from his sleeve, put it on the desk, and then slowly began to grind ink.

As the candle was flickering, Li Cheng picked up the brush and dipped some ink in it, looked up at the latch of the door, and dropped the brush.

"In the third year of the Ming calendar, on the first day of March..."

With one stroke, Li Cheng slowly wrote everything he knew on the silk.

So much happened this month.

First, the Son of Heaven issued an edict to build military academies in various places, requiring middle and lower-level military officers above the rank of the team and below the commander of the army to go to the military academies in turn to participate in training.

After that, craftsmen were widely recruited, many people were forced to go to the workshop to help, and the imperial army was expanded again.

This first edict also opened the prelude to the vigorous reform.

Second, further deregulation of the prefecture's power, of course, only in some prefectures and counties. Yanzhou, Qingzhou, and Jingzhou's prefecture's power was strengthened, while Jiaozhou, Xuzhou, Yuzhou, and Yangzhou remained unchanged, and the power still belonged to the central government.

The prefectures of Yanzhou, Qingzhou, and Jingzhou were allowed to open the government, and had the right to conscript, command, and send troops.

Except for a small part of money and food taxes in the state that needs to be handed over, the rest is allowed to be withheld. It has the power to regulate the money, food and grass of the counties and counties to which it belongs, and it is given the power to appoint and dismiss the county chiefs in the state.

At the beginning, Liu Yan used the prestige of assassinating the governor, who could not be banned, and used someone who was not his, so that he rebelled. After he wrote a letter to change the position of Mu Bo, the authority of the state herdsmen in various places has been greatly strengthened.

The reform this time also let go of Xiangyong's mouth. When the Yellow Turbans in Sizhou revived, Lu Zhi led the main force of the Jizhou Army to block the westward advance of the Yellow Turban Army in Sizhou, and there were many troops composed of Xiangyong under his command.

This time, the Han court let go of power again.

The aristocratic families in Yanzhou and Qingzhou were allowed to recruit private soldiers to assist the Han army in defense, and even gave them corresponding military ranks according to the number of people. Of course, the military ranks were not the same as those of the regular army, and they had to obey the command of the prefect of the state during wartime.

The third reform, compared with the previous two, can be described as the most moderate one.

In China, the garrison system is implemented, and refugees are widely recruited as garrison people to reclaim unowned and barren land.

The tuntian system almost copied the tuntian system set up by the Ming court. Diannong officials, Diannong Duwei, Diannong Xiaowei, Diannong Zhonglang generals were set up, not attached to counties and counties, and the harvest was shared with the state. In Yanzhou, Qingzhou, and Jingzhou The three-state harvest is directly divided within the state.

Although the system is similar, the land tax collected by the Han court is much higher than that collected by the Ming court.

Those who use official cattle are divided into six officials and four people, and those who use private cattle are divided equally between the government and the people, but the farm tools are provided by the government.

Farmers in the farmland were not allowed to leave the farmland casually, and they were punished as deserters if they left the farmland.

The military garrison is garrisoned by soldiers, with [-] people as a tun, and they are guarding and garrisoning the fields at the same time.

Although the first two reforms were a bit drastic, they did not encounter much opposition.

Most of the officers who can enter military academies to study in various places are actually the children of powerful families, and only a small number of officers have really risen from the top soldiers all the way through military merit.

From a small soldier to becoming a village chief or a military lord, it is almost as difficult as climbing the sky in the Han army.

Lu Bu was born in a poor family, he has been in the army for more than ten years, he has experienced hundreds of battles, and has made many achievements in battle. He is just a military lord, no matter how brave the real big-headed soldier is, no matter how outstanding his military exploits are, the head of the village is only his end.

The second reform is to increase the power of the prefectural pastor. In addition to the strong dissuasion of some veteran officials in the court, there are voices of opposition, which also demand that they be treated equally, and that prefectures such as Xuzhou and Yangzhou can also open government offices.

However, such a request was naturally not allowed. After all, the three prefectures of Qingzhou, Yanzhou, and Jingzhou let go of their power because the existing military strength and situation of these three prefectures alone cannot cope with the current situation.

The court debates were raging, but no one could stop the implementation of the decree.

The reform of the Han court is not over yet, and Li Cheng's political sense is not bad. He has been an official in the Han court for many years, and he knows that these three laws are just a foretaste. stop there.

Everything takes time. The young emperor who lives deep in the palace has a strategy, and there is a capable man standing behind him. The expansion of the Imperial Army's recruitment is inconspicuous in all the edicts.

Some changes are taking place in Yangzhou and Xuzhou, but Li Cheng doesn't know exactly what kind of changes are happening there.

The infiltration of Eagle Wolf Guards only went to Yanzhou, Jingzhou, Qingzhou, and Yuzhou. Yangzhou, Xuzhou, and Jiaozhou were too difficult to get their hands on.

He just heard some rumors, it seems that Yangzhou and Xuzhou are recruiting soldiers, and Yangzhou, Xuzhou, and Jiaozhou have also added governors.

Yuzhou still does not have a state pastor, but it also has a governor.

It is worth mentioning that the governors of these four states are basically older courtiers, and their stand is also very firm, always standing with the emperor.

The Embroidered Clothes Emissary has developed for so long, and the two sides have fought countless times. With the home court advantage, the Eagle Wolf Guard can only hide in obedience and stand still.

Li Cheng finished writing the last paragraph, put the brush aside, looked at the silk script on the desk, and slowly stood up.

He will take advantage of tomorrow to hand over this letter to his contact person, and then send it out of Chendu by the Yingwei in Chendu City, and then travel to many places before sending it to the Northland. It will take at least two months to send it to the north.

Even if it can never be delivered, the roads in various places are now in danger, and the embroidered clothes messengers have almost no cover during this time, and those embroidered clothes messengers in embroidered clothes just walked on the streets swaggeringly.

Li Cheng didn't understand the general trend of the world. He only knew that his task was to convey information and obey his superiors.

He was very excited when he heard that the Northern Expedition of the Han army was defeated, and that the great virtuous master had led the Taipingdao army to regain the land of Hebei. He was very excited, and then he had been waiting for the great virtuous master to go south with his army and unify the world.

It just seemed that things were not as simple as imagined. The great virtuous teacher did not lead the army to continue south, but temporarily stopped.

He was alone in Tingwei's mansion, isolated from the world, and the only person in Chendu who knew his identity was his contact person, who was responsible for passing the information out of the city.

He has been in Chendu for many years, and has even married and had children. His wife is the daughter of an official in the Han court.

Sometimes, Li Chengcheng doesn't know who he is.

Is it the Qianhu of the Eagle Wolf Guard, or Ting Wei Youping of the Han Court.

On the execution ground, he saw with his own eyes what happened to those lurkers who were Eagle Guards like him.

Li Cheng closed his eyes, and he remembered the scene he saw at the edge of the execution ground a few days ago.

More than a dozen bruised, almost invisible, bloody prisoners were put on the scaffold.

On the execution platform, a soldier dumped a wooden bucket full of clear water on the ground, and the clear water took away the blood that had accumulated on the execution platform.

A batch of prisoners had been executed on the execution platform here. Standing on the edge, Li Cheng couldn't see what was going on under the platform, but he knew what it was like below the platform.

On the execution platform, more than a dozen bare-chested prisoners with bruises all over their bodies were forced to kneel on the ground, and the executioner with a sharp knife behind him was ready to execute.

The north wind howled, and the topless prisoners on the execution platform were trembling in the cold wind.

The executioner was chanting aloud the crimes above the crimes. Those who were put on the execution platform were all spies of the Eagle Wolf Guard lurking in Chendu, so as to announce to everyone that this was the fate of spies and traitors.

The sound of sobbing, wailing, begging for mercy, and the crying of the baby lingered in Li Cheng's ears.

Those voices did not come from above the scaffold, but from the other side of the scaffold. Without exception, those people were women and children, and they were the family members of the prisoners on the scaffold who were about to be executed.

Li Cheng looked at the unfamiliar faces on the platform.

He didn't know anyone in it, but he knew that these people were all his fellows.

Like him, they all made the same promise.

Li Cheng was slightly in a daze. In a daze, he seemed to hear his son's cry, saw his wife trembling with fear, and saw himself kneeling on the execution platform with scars all over his body.

"Raise the knife!"

There was a loud shout, and Li Cheng saw a sharp knife being raised high.

On the execution platform, among the bound Yingwei Tiqi, some of them tried their best to raise their heads, straightened their spines, and stretched their necks to be slaughtered.

Someone was muttering something silently, with their eyes tightly closed.

Someone was trembling all over, but they were still clenching their teeth.

But no one begged for mercy, and no one shed tears.

Under the execution platform, there are all kinds of beings, and the noise is always there. Some of their eyes are teasing, some are contemptuous, some are angry, but most of them are numb.

"Hair like leeks, cut back to life..."

Li Cheng heard it very clearly. He heard a familiar singing voice.

"The head is like a chicken, and it croaks again!"

The place where the singing came from was the execution platform not far away.

"Execution!"

Li Cheng saw the anger in the executioner's eyes.

"Puff puff!"

After all, the song was not finished, and more than ten human heads had already rolled down under the execution platform.

Li Cheng slowly opened his eyes, and the candle in front of him was almost completely extinguished, leaving only the last bit.

Li Cheng stared at the last candle on the desk, and sang softly with a voice that he could only hear.

"Officials don't have to be feared, but ordinary people should never be taken lightly..."

A gust of wind blew into the house from the gap in the window, and the candle on the desk shook for a bit, and then turned into a wisp of green smoke...

(End of this chapter)