Spoiler History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 783 The Golden Period of Entrepreneurship

In Yecheng.

Liu Xie heard that General Zhang Fei was still arguing with the emperor's uncle about whether he was considered the emperor's uncle's "commoner brother".

And taking another glance, among those people in Yecheng whom he was familiar with, Xin Pi had a curious look on his face, and was pointing at the light curtain with his daughter. Geng Ji and others were also whispering to each other. Jia Xu, on the other hand, looked the most relaxed, and seemed to be saying something with a smile to Cai Bojie's daughter.

Perhaps for them, now that they have seen such an unusual thing, all their previous speculations about the Emperor's uncle will have to be completely overturned.

He shook his head in his heart. To be honest, Liu Xie didn't have much feeling for Emperor Hongwu.

Now, he has seen too many heroes and villains, and has been successively at the hands of Dong, Li, and Cao. He has suffered too much humiliation and has clearly realized time and time again that he is by no means a sage king or a wise ruler.

Therefore, after listening to his uncle's brief account of the deeds of Emperor Hongwu, Liu Xie knew that the two were completely different people.

Even though he is the Son of Heaven in title, if he really had the same mind and ambition as Emperor Hongwu, why would the world have become like this?
When he was in Chang'an, he allied with Zhong Lao and Lu Bu, drew his sword to kill Dong Zhuo, swept Guanzhong, jumped on Qingcong, established six armies, and destroyed Guo and Li with his might.

After leaving Tongguan, he rebuked Cao Cao, called the world, drove him out of the Central Plains and defeated Cao, and entered Hebei. The four generations of Chen, the three dukes of Yun, and Yanyun finally returned to their hearts.

Afterwards, he rode on six horses to tour the country, entrusted his uncle with appointing Zhuge Liang to invite Jia Xu, and returned to the Taimiao to report to his ancestors and bring peace to the world.

It’s true, Liu Xie thought this was a good idea, but unfortunately he was not Emperor Hongwu after all.

He had neither the courage to look Dong Zhuo in the face, nor the guts to rebuke Cao Cao. It was not until Yecheng was in danger that he took a gamble after the Queen's earnest persuasion. In the end, even Cao Cao's powerful generals could not kill him alone when his teeth had been pulled out, and Fu Shou had to work with him.

Compared with Emperor Hongwu, he is not a novice emperor, but what’s the use? Can he resist a million-strong army?

However... he turned his head to look at Liu Bei, who was arguing with Zhang Fei about the meaning of commoner brothers, Guan Yu and Zhuge and others who were twirling their beards and watching the fun, and the light curtain floating in the air.

Liu Xie suddenly felt relieved:
Who said that being an emperor requires such a hard transformation? I have an uncle who has been blessed by God!
Even though we still don’t know what the future holds, we still have to:
He and Fu Shou no longer had to live in fear under Cao Cao's shadow, which was a relief.

As long as the Emperor's uncle is still alive and the rebellion is about to be quelled, he will not let down the late emperor.

That's enough!

So Liu Xie simply changed to a more comfortable position, watching the affairs of Emperor Hongwu on the screen while listening to the chat between his uncle and his old friends.

Apart from anything else, he should be able to help his uncle with some of the worries regarding the rewards for these loyal ministers and generals of the Han Dynasty.

[Speaking of Hu Weiyong, many people will inevitably feel unfamiliar with him.

After all, when it comes to Zhu Yuanzhang's team of people who made him rich, there is a long list of people, from Chang Shiwan who dominated the world, to Xu Da who built the Great Wall on the frontier, to Li Shanchang who served him faithfully, and Li Wenzhong, Deng Yu, Feng Sheng and others who were also granted the title of duke. Even if we talk about a wider range of people, there are also Tang and Guo Xing and the mysterious Liu Bowen, etc.

In comparison, Hu Weiyong can really be said to be unknown, which is also confusing. In fact, Hu Weiyong can be regarded as one of Zhu Yuanzhang's old friends.

In the 15th year of Zhizheng, Zhu Yuanzhang conquered He County, and his fame spread to Dingyuan County, not far from He County. Hu Weiyong, who was a minor official in the Yuan Dynasty, made up his mind and rolled up his bedding to join Zhu Yuanzhang. I'm going to rebel!
For Hu Weiyong at that time, this decision might be a highlight in his life, something worth bragging about to his grandchildren in his later years.

But in fact, no one cared at all at that time. One reason was that corruption at the grassroots level was the norm in the Yuan Dynasty, and the other was that there were rebellions everywhere, and you wouldn't make a difference.

Moreover, Hu Weiyong, who had defected to the former location, soon faced another problem: the golden window of opportunity for entrepreneurship had closed!
We have said before that the turning point of the fate of the Yuan Dynasty was in 1354. In this year, Toghto was deprived of power, millions of troops were displaced, some fled and some rebelled. The coffin of the Yuan Dynasty was almost nailed down.

This year was also a turning point in Zhu Yuanzhang's destiny, because the rebel army was in name only, so Zhu simply took 24 of his trusted men to the south to attack Dingyuan. As a result, he met Li Shanchang, a think tank, on the way and joined him. He continued to expand the team and eventually successfully conquered Chuzhou, making a great name for himself.

After conquering Chuzhou, Li Shanchang's talents were verified, and the force that had already grown to a certain scale was in urgent need of proper management. So Zhu directly appointed Li Shanchang to be responsible for screening the talents who came to join him. Under such circumstances, Hu Weiyong's resume was handed to Li Shanchang, and he was eventually sent to be a messenger in the Marshal's Office, which in layman's terms was a messenger.

Hu Weiyong and Li Shanchang were from the same hometown, but they joined the Roman army only one year apart. One became a Roman and the other became a mule and horse, and in the days that followed, the gap between them became increasingly larger.

In the following ten years, through continuous efforts, Hu Weiyong successively served as envoy, chief clerk, county magistrate, assistant judge, and assistant censor of Huguang.

This promotion speed is certainly not slow, but compared with other people in the entrepreneurial team, it is somewhat not impressive, because his fellow countryman Li Shanchang has been appointed as the Right Prime Minister, which is basically equivalent to the Prime Minister.

By the time Zhang Shicheng was defeated the following year, the dragon energy in Zhu Yuanzhang had obviously faded away. Under such circumstances, Hu Weiyong finally began to get a little anxious.

Adhering to the principle that a living person should not die of thirst, Hu Weiyong took the opportunity of his fellow townsman to give Li Shanchang two hundred gold coins. The meaning was very clear: he was helping his brother because they were from the same hometown.

At that time, Li Shanchang was awarded the title of Duke of Xuan Guo for his contribution in pacifying Wu, and was later appointed as the Left Prime Minister. He was already the de facto leader of the central government, so this was obviously not a big deal for him.

I, Old Li, am not greedy for money. I just can't bear to see my fellow countrymen's talents being buried.

So, with Li Shanchang's "keen eye for talent", Hu Weiyong was directly transferred to the capital as the Shaoqing of Taichang Temple in just two months, and was soon promoted to the Qing of Taichang Temple.

Less than two months later, it was 1368, the year the Ming Dynasty was founded. It can be said that Hu Weiyong narrowly caught the last wave of favorable conditions before the founding of the Ming Dynasty.

His promotions in just less than half a year exceeded the total of the past ten years. Seeing Zhu Yuanzhang sitting high in the imperial court, Hu Weiyong also figured out the key to working in a central government: wealth and honor must be sought through licking one's own wounds.

After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, who attached great importance to etiquette in the feudal era and still had some unruly spirit, also found it troublesome, so he handed over the matters of posthumously conferring titles on the ancestors' concubines, sons, and kings of the royal family to Li Shanchang, and let him determine the rituals for the suburban communities and ancestral temples.

These jobs were exactly in line with Hu Weiyong's position as the Minister of Taichang Temple, so in the first three years of the Ming Dynasty, Hu Weiyong quickly attached himself to Li Shanchang.

And in the third year of Hongwu, when the big pot was divided, he was successfully appointed as the Vice-Minister of the Secretariat.

Simply put, please call me Deputy Prime Minister Hu. 】

(End of this chapter)