Xuande

Chapter 587 An Unprecedented Military Strongman Appears
The lack of gold in the Eastern Han Dynasty was really lacking. The royal family did not have much gold, and the rewards for meritorious officials were tens of taels and hundreds of taels, and they seemed petty everywhere.

But Liu Bei made so many shots as soon as he made a move.

The Empress Dowager Dong almost didn't hold back, and it took a while to recover, staring at the things in the box, and then at the long row behind.

"General, are there really that many captured this time?"

Liu Bei smiled.

"These barbarians seem to be quite poor, but the poor ones are the small people below, the chiefs, the adults, and the rich ones. The ministers killed them in their tribes and inspected their private properties. What they saw was a box of Chests of gold silver and copper.

Some of them must have been plundered, and some were obtained in exchange for business transactions, and some should have been accumulated by them annexing each other. In short, they are all a group of rich and oily bastards. I plan to further destroy the Xianbei in the central part, in that case, there should be more seizures, hahahahaha..."

As he spoke, Liu Bei laughed boldly.

Want to destroy the Central Xianbei?

Dong Zhong spit in his mouth, and his calves trembled a little. Looking at Liu Bei, he became more and more afraid.

Is he the god of war alive?
Doesn't he have a real opponent?

Could it be that the world is so big that there is no rival for Liu Xuande?

How could Xianbei, who was disturbed by the big Han and restless on the frontier for many years, be as easy to bully as Chui Piao'er in Liu Bei's hands?Could it be that the guys from the ancient literature school were right?

Is "Zuoshi Chunqiu" actually a military book that can teach people how to fight?
There are not a few people who have the same idea. There are many people who can't hold back Liu Bei's astonishing military exploits, and there are also many people who are afraid of Liu Bei's appearance.

An unprecedented military strongman appeared, which was the first time in the entire history of the Eastern Han Empire.

The school of ancient literature had just publicized the great advantages of ancient Chinese classics over modern classics. In fact, the representative case was Liu Bei, who had won many battles. They claimed that this was the superiority of the guiding significance of "Zuo Shi Chun Qiu".

But now, Liu Bei's military exploits of fighting all over the world seem to really reflect the statement of the ancient literature school.

Ancient Chinese classics seem to be really good medicine for governing the country.

Huan Dian's eyes became even darker, and he even felt that his breathing was a bit difficult, and he couldn't stand up.

It was as if bells were ringing in his ears.

I just don't know who the bell is ringing for.

So when they entered the city, the officials were afraid to look directly at Liu Bei. Wherever Liu Bei looked, whether it was officials of the modern school of literature or the officials of the ancient literature school, only a very small number of people could still look at each other with a smile. Everyone couldn't help lowering their heads.

Liu Bei is so powerful and terrifying.

The cause of this battle was Gongsun Zan's reckless mess, which caused Youzhou to almost collapse. When Liu Bei set off, the people in the court were somewhat worried.

But when Liu Bei returned, he brought back a Youzhou that gradually restored order and a relatively stable Jizhou, and the northern border was cleaned up by Liu Bei, and the future can be expected.

The credit for annihilating the enemy and restoring local order is indeed a bit too great, and Liu Bei gave too much. He directly dyed the pupils of the little emperor Liu Xie into gold, and dyed the eyeballs of the empress dowager Dong. They all took the shape of gold ingots.

Neither did the emperor and the empress dowager.

But Liu Bei gave too much.

Therefore, discussing how to reward Liu Bei has become a big topic.

He is already a great general himself, and he can no longer increase his position, so he can only work on titles and other rewards.

It will take a certain amount of time, so that day, the imperial court just held a celebration banquet, with the emperor as the host, generals who made military exploits in this battle as guests, and all civil and military officials as foils to celebrate the victory together.

The soldiers who joined the conquest were also rewarded with wine and meat from the court, as well as money.

Of course, for them, this is just a small dessert at the end, a real gluttonous meal, which they have already enjoyed before.

For Liu Bei, the level of enjoyment that belongs to him has not yet come because the level of enjoyment is too high, and even he himself does not know what interesting things he can enjoy.

Liu Bei himself still did not participate in this matter, and left the decision-making power to the Empress Dowager Dong to see what she thought.

She is the highest nominal person holding the imperial power on behalf of her, and she is also the actual signatory of the imperial power. It is best for her to make a decision on this matter.

In the evening when the banquet was over, Liu Bei went home early to rest, while the Empress Dowager Dong called Dong Zhong, Zhang Rang and Jian Shuo, and the four had a meeting together to discuss the reward for Liu Bei.

Needless to say, this is a question worth exploring.

The position cannot be promoted, and some rewards from other aspects seem to be ignored. Liu Bei himself is the number one marquis of the Han Dynasty, and the food town is already the most in the world. No matter how much it is increased, it will be the most, not more.

Giving rewards to family members and future generations is the same thing, glory to glory, whether it can satisfy him, whether it can satisfy the imagination of the people in the world is also a big question.

So Empress Dowager Dong was troubled by this, and asked Dong Zhong and the other three for their opinions.

Zhang Rang's thinking is relatively simple. He feels that he knows Liu Bei a little bit, and he doesn't think Liu Bei will care about these things very much, so he suggested to give Liu Bei and his family some regular rewards, and then agreed to the promotion reports of some of Liu Bei's subordinates. , is enough to satisfy him.

Jian Shuo didn't know Liu Bei well, so he thought it was right to give Liu Bei more money.

But Dong Chong thought about it, his eyes rolled around, and suddenly thought of an interesting thing.

"Xuande has made such a great contribution, the position can no longer be promoted, so it is better to give him a higher honor in the title, even if it is not convenient to be a king, it is also possible to be a prince, what does the Empress Dowager think?"

"Feng Gong?"

Empress Dowager Dong was stunned for a moment, as were Zhang Rang and Jian Shuo.

It's not that the Han Dynasty didn't have the title of Duke, it did. Although the Han Dynasty didn't have the fifth-class title of Duke and Bozi in the Spring and Autumn Period and later in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, it inherited some of Qin's system of titles, but it still has The three-level system of princes and princes.

Back then, Liu Bang said that no one with the surname of Liu could not be crowned a king, and those who had meritorious service could not be crowned a marquis. It seemed that he had skipped the title of Duke, but this title exists and is permanent, but it targets different targets.

In the Eastern Han Dynasty, meritorious officials were generally only promoted in the twentieth-level military merit title system inherited from the Qin Dynasty, and princes were generally only conferred on princes and their direct descendants, and dukes generally only belonged to the category of two kings and three ke.

Two Kings and Three Kes is a kind of political etiquette system, which is one of the guest etiquette. In this era of etiquette and law, it is a very solemn and solemn thing.

The rulers who gained the right to rule in the past dynasties would confer titles on the descendants of the previous royal family, called the Second Queen and Sanke, give them names, bestow fiefs, and offer sacrifices to the ancestral temple to show the lineage inherited by the dynasty and indicate the orthodox status.

Generally speaking, the descendants of the first two generations are called the second queen, and the descendants of the first three generations are called San Ke.

In the second year of Jianwu, Liu Xiu appointed Kong An, a descendant of Confucius, as Duke Jia of Yin Shao, and made the descendants of Confucius inherit the rewards of Yin and Shang, and made Ji Wu Duke Chengxiu of Zhou, inheriting the rewards of Ji and Zhou.

In the 13th year of Jianwu, he changed the titles of Kong An and Ji Wu to Song Gong and Wei Gong, and changed Xinqi County and Guan County to Song Duke and Wei Duke, each with state ministers and county magistrates.

Although these two duchies had no sense of existence, they existed until the Yongjia Rebellion in the Jin Dynasty and were destroyed. They existed longer than the Eastern Han Empire.

In terms of regulation, the status of Song Guogong and Wei Guogong is higher than that of princes and lower than that of kings.

Generally speaking, a minister can only be granted a marquis, and cannot be promoted to a higher level. The duke is bestowed on the descendants of the previous dynasty, so that they can continue as "guests" in the rule of the Han Empire to show respect.

So strictly speaking, the Duke is not a courtier of the Eastern Han Emperor, but a guest of the Eastern Han Emperor.

They are guests, and their status is different.

The same thing is that the prince can only be granted to the prince, or the direct descendant of the prince.

One is a guest, and the other is a relative of one's own family, neither of which has anything to do with a minister.

However, Dong Zhong proposed to show Liu Bei's status different from the past and reward him with the duke.

He even said that he wanted Liu Bei to go further.

"Emperor Gaozu swore to kill the white horse in those days. Unless Liu was surnamed, he could not be crowned king, and those who had meritorious service could not be enshrined as marquis. Although the emperor has only been crowned king since the resurgence of the Han Dynasty, the general's surname is also Liu. Strictly speaking, even if you become a king, you haven't violated Gaozu's oath, right?"

(End of this chapter)