Silver Fox of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 397 Get a new big guy out

The big man is dead!

As soon as these words came out, there was a lot of discussion.

Everyone whispered, and the hall was chattering.

Even Zhuge Liang frowned, and then quickly calmed down.

Liu Bei froze there, then sat there with some dejection and muttered to himself: "Yes, the big man is dead."

"The big man is indeed dead."

Shen Chen looked around, and said loudly: "Whether your Majesty is sincerely abdicating or being forced by Cao Pi, no matter in fact or in name, the great man has already died. Just like the former Han king Mang usurping the throne, there are no Han officials in the north, and there are no Han officials in the south. There is no Han Lord, and this is the biggest problem we will face."

"That's right, Your Majesty has always regarded His Majesty as orthodox, but the Son of Heaven was forced by Cao Pi to hand over the orthodoxy of the Han Dynasty to Cao Pi. Then Cao Pi inherited the Han Dynasty in the name of righteousness, just like the great ancestor inherited Qin, and we have lost it." It has a righteous name."

"That's right, Xiaoqing still has a profound view on the problem, and has grasped the most important key point. Now that the king has lost his reputation in the south, even if he wants to launch a northern expedition, in what name should he send troops to attack Cao Pi?"

"Isn't it okay to avenge the emperor?"

"Of course it won't work. The big Han is dead. If the Han unification does not continue, then the king will lack legitimacy and righteousness, and it will be unreasonable to send troops to the north."

There was a lot of discussion.

This is the dilemma Liu Bei is facing now.

Liu Bei is currently able to establish a vassal state in the south. What is the legal principle he has mastered?
He regarded Liu Xie as orthodox, and at the same time held the imperial edict in his hand, raised troops in the south, and then attacked Cao Cao in the north to revive the Han Dynasty.

To put it simply, with the clothes and belts in hand, Liu Bei can officially declare that Cao Cao is the current Wang Mang, has controlled the emperor, and wants to usurp the Han and stand on his own.

And he was the loyal minister appointed by Liu Xie to get rid of Cao Cao.

But because of Cao Cao's power, Liu Bei went to the south to recruit soldiers and talents, and together with him, he helped the Han Dynasty and saved the emperor from suffering.

But now the emperor is gone.

In name, Liu Xie abdicated the throne to Cao Pi, and the big man was gone.

So in terms of law, Liu Bei used the clothes and belts as the foundation, and the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains, the revival of the Han Dynasty, and the righteous name of the emperor, naturally disappeared.

Don't underestimate righteousness and fame.

Even in the late Yuan and Qing dynasties, the rebels raised slogans such as anti-Yuan and Song Dynasty, anti-Qing and Ming Dynasty, and restoring the clothes of the Han people.

Sometimes looking at righteousness and fame is a vain thing, but the benefits it can bring are unimaginable.

Cao Cao took advantage of Liu Xie's banner of the Han Dynasty to take the initiative. He appointed whoever he wanted to be an official, and sent troops to conquer whoever he wanted.

Therefore, the current top priority is not to launch the Northern Expedition, but how to seize the righteousness and win the orthodoxy from Cao Wei's hands.

Liu Bei's face was full of grief and indignation. The fall of the Han Dynasty made him, a descendant of the clan, extremely painful.

Zhuge Liang stood up at this time and said: "Xiaoqing is right. The Northern Expedition is not important now. The important thing is that now that the Han Dynasty is dead, the king raised troops with the order of clothes and belts, and ordered the thief, but the emperor gave up the throne to Cao Pi. , If you send out troops according to the order, you will become an unknown teacher and will not be popular."

"But."

Liu Bei lamented: "Now that Your Majesty is dead and the Han Dynasty is gone, what should I do with the widow?"

"Your Majesty!"

Shen Chen stood up and said earnestly: "Although your majesty is dead, the king is still there. If the awe-inspiring man is here, who is Yun Han dead? The emperor will lose the orthodoxy of the Han Dynasty in his hands, and the rise and fall of the Han Dynasty will fall on the shoulders of the king. At that time, the great king should just like Guangwu inherited the great rule in Hebei, and a new big man should come out, so that people who cherish the Han family in the world can have a place to return to!"

Get a new big guy out?

Although Shen Chen can often utter some incomprehensible sentences, even a fool can understand these sentences.

Isn't this persuading Liu Bei to become emperor? What else could it be?
The people below were stunned for a moment, and then someone who reacted quickly stood up and said: "Yes, my lord, the Han family was taken by Cao Pi. Although the king is a Han subject, the Han lord is no longer here, and we have no allegiance." The king. As the saying goes, a country cannot be without a master for a day, and the king should inherit the great order to continue Hanzuo."

"Yes, in the former Han Dynasty, Wang Mang usurped the throne. In order to continue the Han Dynasty, Gengshi Emperor, Siyuan Emperor, Liang Han Emperor, and Guangwu Emperor successively became emperors. The burden of rehabilitating the Han Dynasty is on my shoulders, and I am duty-bound."

"I think the governor is right. It is a fact that Cao Pi usurped the Han Dynasty. Even the emperor has been killed. The orthodoxy has perished. The king should follow the example of Emperor Guangwu and ascend the throne as emperor, so that he can expel the rebellious ministers and false emperors and start the Northern Expedition!"

"The words of the princes are not without reason, and the minister also thinks."

Many courtiers immediately had a long speech, all kinds of citations, including the example of Emperor Guangwu in the Western Han Dynasty, and the example of Zhongshan's restoration of the country in the Spring and Autumn Period.

Liu Bei was taken aback by what everyone said, and said hesitantly: "But I have received the grace of His Majesty, and I have been able to be an official in the court, so I can have what I am today, how can I?"

"Your Majesty."

Shen Chen said: "Your Majesty is indeed blessed by His Majesty, but now that the emperor has lost his orthodoxy, if he still regards the Son of Heaven as his master, he will lack righteousness. How can people in the world who cherish the Han family find their home? Only when the great king is enthroned as emperor, can he become the co-lord of the world, and order the righteous people in the country to fight against the puppet dynasty of Cao Wei!"

"Kong Ming, what do you think?"

Liu Bei looked at Zhuge Liang again, wanting to ask his opinion.

Zhuge Liangliang nodded and said: "Xiaoqing's words are very true, I hope Your Majesty will think twice."

"I hope Your Majesty will think twice."

The crowd continued to persuade them to advance, and they couldn't be too slow at this time, even Zhuge Jin, Lu Xun, Zhang Zhao, Gu Yong and other Jiangdong factions shouted with all their might.

Everyone knows that if Liu Bei ascends the throne now, he will be a minister of the dragon.

Although Cao Wei occupies the north, it is powerful.

But after Liu Bei got Jiangdong, he was bigger than Cao Wei in terms of territory, but the population was smaller than that in the north, but it was not without the opportunity to dominate the world.

Even if they can't unify the world now, as long as Liu Bei becomes emperor, their official positions can be further promoted.

Regardless of whether it is out of political considerations or for the benefit of himself and his family, the benefits of Liu Bei's proclaiming the emperor far outweigh the disadvantages. In other words, after Liu Xie abdicates, even if Liu Bei proclaims the emperor, there is no harm at all, only benefits.

So everyone hopes that Liu Bei can become emperor at this time.

One is to continue the Han unification of Guozuo.

The second is that after proclaiming the emperor, he can justifiably reward hundreds of officials, instead of holding nondescript official positions under the Kaifu of the King of Han as before.

Seeing that everyone was urging him to become emperor, Liu Bei hesitated for a while, and said, "If I inherit the great unification, when will I be able to raise troops?"

Shen Chen said: "Your Majesty, inheriting the great lineage is not a trivial matter. Firstly, it is necessary to announce to the world; secondly, it is necessary to invite barbarians from all over the world; Lost his country, the spirits of the 24 emperors of the Han Dynasty have no one to worship, the king must not forget his ancestors."

"Ancestor?"

Liu Bei suddenly broke out in a cold sweat.

The worship of ancestors in the Han Dynasty was unimaginable to many people.

In other words, even though Chinese people in later generations place more value on the concept of family, it is far less deeply rooted than in the Han Dynasty.

In the concept at that time, the ancestors had spirits. If the descendants were unworthy and could not worship the ancestors and let the ancestors enjoy the incense, then the ancestors would become wandering ghosts and suffer from hunger and cold.

The ancestor of the Liu surname in the Han Dynasty was naturally Liu Bang, including Liu Bei.He is not from the lineage of Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu, so Liu Xiu is not his ancestor, but Liu Bang is.

But the Eastern Han Dynasty officials worshiped Liu Bang and the emperors of the Western Han Dynasty.

Liu Xiu also always regarded the Eastern Han Dynasty he founded as the continuation of the Western Han Dynasty, instead of saying that the Western Han Dynasty and the Eastern Han Dynasty were two dynasties, but people at that time called the Western Han Dynasty the Former Han or the First Han in order to distinguish it.

Now that Cao Pi has usurped the Han Dynasty, there will be no emperor of the Han Dynasty among the official sacrifices in the north, and Liu Bei's ancestors will not be able to receive sacrifices and support.

Even if Liu Xie could still retain the right to offer sacrifices to the ancestor emperors of the Han Dynasty in Shanyang, Liu Bei thought Liu Xie was dead and didn't know about it.Secondly, this is not an orthodox national sacrifice, and the standard system is far inferior to the original one.

Liu Bei obviously forgot about it because he heard the bad news that the big man was dead and Liu Xie was dead. Now that he was reminded by Shen Chen, he remembered it and was terrified.

When he thought that his ancestors might suffer from hunger and cold, he panicked and said quickly, "Then what should we do?"

Shen Chen immediately said: "Since the great king inherited the great rule, he re-established the Han Dynasty in the south and built the ancestral temple to support the spirit of the ancestor. Otherwise, the 24 generations of ancestors have no ancestral temple to rely on, how can they rest in peace under the darkness?"

"Yes, for the sake of the Han Dynasty and the ancestors of the Han family, the king should indeed do so."

"I also invite the king to ascend the throne as the emperor, and then launch the Northern Expedition to revive the country."

"Please ascend the throne, Your Majesty!"

The officials bowed their hands again and saluted Liu Bei, expressing their persuasion to Liu Bei.

This time Liu Bei finally stopped refusing, but sighed a long time: "Since this is the case, for the sake of the immortality of the Han Dynasty and the sacrifice of the spirit of the ancestors, I can only do so. I just hope that after I ascend the throne, I can go north to the Central Plains." , to attack Cao Pi to comfort the spirit of the late emperor. Let Kong Ming and Xiaoqing handle this matter."

"Your Majesty Yingming!"

Everyone saluted again.

In fact, Liu Bei has no reason to refuse.

Because of the demise of the Han Dynasty, the great Han country was gone, and naturally there was no one above him.

Even if he is promoted automatically, he must ascend the throne and become emperor.

What's more, only by playing the banner of revitalizing the Han Dynasty can we regain the righteousness that was robbed by Cao Pi.

The slogan now shouted by the North is simple.

Liu Xie felt that he was incapable of revitalizing the Han Dynasty, so he voluntarily handed over the position of emperor to Cao Pi, who replaced the Han Dynasty and established the Great Wei Empire.

In this way, Cao Pi inherited the Han Dynasty orthodoxly, just like Liu Bang inherited the Great Qin Empire.

On the contrary, Liu Bei in the south became a traitor and traitor who did not obey the emperor's edict.

In this way, in terms of righteousness, Liu Bei was born a head short.

Therefore, in order to regain the title of righteousness, it is imperative to proclaim the emperor. There is no need to hypocritically refuse to be persuaded twice like Cao Pi, and only agree to the third time.

After agreeing to become emperor, the next thing is relatively simple. Zhuge Liang, Shen Chen and others immediately started preparing the things needed to become emperor.

Historically, Liu Xie was usurped by Cao Pi in October of the 25th year of Jian'an, but Liu Bei became emperor in April of the second year.

The half-year period in the middle was not caused by lack of information, but because of Liu Bei's preparations for enthronement.

It took four months from getting the news at the beginning of the second year, and then preparing to ascend the throne.

But even so, he was hastily enthroned.

Because the real enthronement ceremony often takes longer, the envoys from all directions must be notified, various matters of the new dynasty must be formulated, and the number of people must be finally determined before the enthronement ceremony can be held.

Now Liu Bei entrusted Zhuge Liang and Shen Chen to handle these matters. If a new big man was to be brought out, the two of them naturally could not slack off.

This naturally takes a long time.

And there is a very important thing inside.

That is, since the Han Dynasty is to be re-established, officials must be appointed again according to the specifications of the empire.

The officials in the past were all subordinates of the shogunate of the Han Dynasty. One was not an official enlisted by the imperial court, and the other was not a courtier of the Han Dynasty, but the courtiers of the princes and kings of the Han Dynasty.

Now if Liu Bei ascends the throne, he can justifiably be replaced by an orthodox official position of the Han Dynasty.

The list of officials is naturally not determined when Liu Bei ascends the throne, but is determined in advance, and then after Liu Bei ascends the throne, a large-scale reward will be given.

Therefore, Liu Bei handed over the enthronement to the two of them, in fact, he also handed over the appointment of officials to them.

Basically, they draw up a list, and Liu Bei will read it out when the time comes.

Therefore, in a sense, Zhuge Liang and Shen Chen are very powerful at this time. They can arrange their own people in the court, and even let the whole court be filled with their party members, thus ignoring Liu Bei.

But Liu Bei trusted them so much, naturally because of their firm character.Apart from the fact that Shen Chen would appoint some really talented disciples under his sect, there would probably not be any personal affair.

So everything went well.

Just taking advantage of this opportunity, Shen Chen proposed to reform the system, changing the system of Sangong and Jiuqing into the system of three provinces and six ministries, so that the Sangong and Jiuqing, as well as the generals, generals of hussars, generals of chariots, generals of guards, etc., can establish their own small imperial courts. Cancel it to strengthen centralization.

But Zhuge Liang objected.

He didn't object to the problem with Shen Chen's system, but he believed that since he wanted to inherit the Han Dynasty in terms of legal principles and orthodoxy, he should fully accept the system of the Great Han Dynasty and assume a superficially orthodox identity.

Even though Zhuge Liang knew that the restructuring proposed by Shen Chen had its advantages, he couldn't be sloppy in fighting for the rightful name.

It won't be too late to wait until the regime is stabilized or the world is unified in the future.

Shen Chen felt that it made sense, so he agreed.

However, the current system of Sangong and Jiuqing is indeed ineffective, and these positions can be used as empty positions to accommodate those highly respected veterans.

The real power should still be coordinated, and now they need an efficient government, not a decentralized agency.

Therefore, Shen Chen and Zhuge Liang are not only busy these days with enthronement, but also carrying out certain political reforms, as a model of the newly established Han Dynasty with clear politics, high efficiency, and a high degree of centralization.

This is not an easy task, and it is easy to offend people in the process. For example, if some people are assigned a lower position, they must have complaints and feel unhappy.

But you have to do it even if it is not easy, otherwise, you will not be able to achieve a good political environment and efficient government.

So for a long time after that, Liu Bei's advisers were extremely busy.

The adviser group with Shen Chen and Zhuge Liang as the core, together with Fa Zheng, Jia Xu and Pang Tong, all joined in and ran around.

It was not until the second half of the 26th year of the Cao Wei Group's Huangchu year and the [-]th year of the Liu Bei Group's Jian'an that it was barely completed.

(End of this chapter)