The great man will live forever

Chapter 264: A glass of wine releases military power (Liu Xiu’s courage)
  In the main hall of Luoyang, Liu Xiu was sitting on the throne. Below him were various generals who had made great achievements with him. Most of them were the later Yuntai 28 generals, such as Wu Han, Deng Yu, Geng Chun, and Ma Wu. , Wang Ba, Ma Cheng, Gai Yan, Zhu You, Geng Yan, Jia Fu...

Liu Xiu picked up the wine glass and said: "Now that I am a great Han Dynasty, all the people who love you have contributed a lot, and I will reward you heavily."

Many generals also raised their wine glasses, "Thank you, Your Majesty, Your Majesty is wise!"

"My dear friends, I am here today to celebrate your success."

When everyone was drinking happily, Liu Xiu got to the point.

"I hope you will let go of your military power and give it to those talented people who can govern the country."

You may not have expected that the inventor of "Release Military Power Over a Drink of Wine" turned out to be Liu Xiu. It seems that Lao Zhao of the Song Dynasty had to pay patent fees to Lao Liu of the Han Dynasty.

Seeing everyone looking at each other in confusion, Liu Xiu continued: "You have shed blood for the sweat and have done your best. I will give you another drink."

The generals were confused and still couldn't figure out what kind of medicine was in Liu Xiu's gourd. Some people might have guessed it, but they pretended not to know.

"I'm inviting you here today. There's something I want to discuss with you."

Liu Xiu went straight to the point and said that he wanted to imitate Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty.

"I also want to learn from Gaozu!"

The ministers were dumbfounded, do you also want to kill us?
  Liu Xiu smiled and said, "What I have learned is the way of governing the country, not the way of governing people. I hope you will give up high-ranking officials in the court, let go of military power, and give it to those talented people who can govern the country. What do you think?"

The ministers were still puzzled, so Liu Xiu continued to explain, "Isn't it better to worry less, eat more, and take care of yourself as long as you live?"

Only then did the ministers understand and hurriedly handed over their military power.

Deng Yu was the first to stand up, salute, and said respectfully: "Your Majesty, please take back the general seal in my hand."

Wu Han also stood up and saluted, "Your Majesty, please take back the general in your hand and grant the seal."

Then, one after another, the generals stood up.

"My dear friends, please take back the seals granted to you and make Deng Yu the Marquis of Gaomi, Marquis of Guangping of Wuhan, Jiafu and Marquis of Jiaodong... all the places and cities have been increased, and all the princes have been enthroned, and the positions have been increased. I would like to thank you all here." La.

I have aspired to be a country of education since I was a child, but I was forced by Wang Mang to become a poor soldier. Ten years of fighting between the north and the south. Lian Lulin defended Kunyang, destroyed Chimei and attacked Chang'an. After several life and death, he finally destroyed the Mang Dynasty and prospered the Han Dynasty.

But standing here, not seeing the people who fought side by side with me back then, my heart aches. I know very well that the people are the foundation of a country. If the people are in chaos and the country is in chaos, the people will be peaceful and peaceful. Putting the people first is the way to make the country prosperous..."

Liu Xiu pushed his heart to his heart, talked freely, rewarded and drank, and took back the military power.

A teacher once commented: Liu Xiu was the most knowledgeable, capable of employing people, and the best at fighting in history.

His generosity was unique. Just after the unification war, Liu Xiu immediately "put the swords and guns in the treasury and the horses in the Nanshan Mountains", began to reward meritorious service, promoted officials and nobles, and adjusted and increased the number of feudal officials in one breath. A total of three hundred and sixty-five people.

There are forty-five relatives and ennobled people. The rewards are unprecedented, generous and spend money like water.

Liu Xiu used ultra-high-level honors and rewards to force the heroes and generals who had fought for him through life and death to hand over their military power, "collectively change careers" and return to their fiefdoms.

Either "abandon martial arts and follow literature" and study Confucian classics; or become a "rich man" who is "the richest person in the world".

Instead, we boldly recruit civil servants and newcomers, and use "re-blood transfusion" to complete the replacement of old and new "leading cadres".

Some people may also wonder that Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiucai has just conquered the country. The internal situation is turbulent and people's hearts are unstable. Various "reactionary restoration" forces are still "hundred-footed insects, dead but not dead" and are "ready to move" and wait for opportunities to "resurgence". .

The external situation is in turmoil, the Huns are constantly provoking, intruding, and pressing every step of the way, and the Western Regions are still "alone overseas" and have not returned.

How dare he "throw away" all the twenty-eight Yuntai generals who have made great contributions to conquering the world for him?
  In this way, wouldn't his founding campaign of stabilizing the external frontiers and even opening up the territory come to an end? Isn't there even a danger that the country he had worked so hard to win would be destroyed?
  Is he so bold and unafraid of trouble and subversion by external forces? Or does he have a plan in mind?

Or? Did he not pay attention to external forces such as the Xiongnu and the Western Regions at all?

In short, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the heroes and generals were "laid off" collectively and new people were hired immediately. Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu was the first and only person in history!
  His reason is very good: since Wang Mang usurped the Han Dynasty, there have been constant wars and wars for more than [-] years. The disaster of war caused loss of life, and people were displaced and left their homes. The world is exhausted, with hundreds of wastes waiting to be revitalized. It is said that the world's population has reached "two out of ten" in the late Western Han Dynasty.

Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu believed that the most urgent task at the moment was to put down swords and guns, refine the army and streamline administration, recuperate and restore national strength. Concentrate on vigorously restoring production, encouraging farming, developing the economy, easing corvee and reducing taxes, and stabilizing people's livelihood.

Not only that, these heroes were basically not allowed to participate in government affairs, and they were simply suppressed to the end.

Liu Xiu dared to do this because he had two advantages. The first was his age advantage. Liu Xiu was only 42 years old today. He wanted Liu Xiu to start an army at 28, proclaim himself emperor at 30, and unify the world at 42.

When he dominated the world, his ancestor Liu Bang had not yet raised an army.

Before and after this year, among the twenty-eight generals of Yuntai, Kou Xun, Cen Peng, Feng Yi, Ji Zun, Jing
  Most of these eleven people, Dan, Biqi, Fu Jun, Ren Guang, Wan Xiu, Pi Tong and Liu Zhi, have passed away, and some are seriously ill.

In other words, when Liu Xiu wanted all these founding heroes to retire and go home, nearly half of them were not dead, but not far away from death. Years of fighting had exhausted their bodies.

Among the remaining half, there are many who are unable to participate in government affairs due to injuries, or are too old and unable to work.

In this way, it is very good for Liu Xiu to let them go home to take care of themselves.

Secondly, Liu Xiu's military exploits were too powerful.

From becoming emperor to unifying the world, you will find a very interesting phenomenon. It is often a certain general who is unfavorable in the front line or defeated by the enemy.

Then, Liu Xiu took his people there, and the emperor personally led the expedition, and then there was no more!
  As powerful as Deng Feng, he was beaten by many of Yuntai's twenty-eight generals and even won. However, as soon as Liu Xiu left, he fell into disgrace.

Because Liu Xiu was so good at fighting, during the unification process of the Eastern Han Dynasty, more than half of the tough battles and all the decisive battles were fought by Liu Xiu himself.

All of this resulted in Liu Xiu himself having extremely strong control over the army! Even the founding generals found it difficult to use the army as a bargaining chip to negotiate with Liu Xiu.

He seems to have become the god of war in people's hearts, invincible in every battle, just like Liu Han and Huo Qubing back then. The enemies would tremble when they heard their names.

Therefore, in other dynasties, if the emperor forced the founding generals to go home and retire. Next, the emperor will most likely face a mutiny in the army.

But in Liu Xiu's case, it is unlikely that the middle-level generals and even the lower-level soldiers would go to Liu Xiu to make trouble because the general was forced to retire.

In addition, a few years ago, Liu Xiu had already wiped out most of the Central Plains. Only Longxi and Sichuan were left, which had not been captured at that time.

At this time, Liu Xiu issued a decree saying that every time he recruited an army, his hair would be a little grayer, so he abolished more than half of the army in the Eastern Han Dynasty at that time!

From a national perspective, there is nothing wrong with Liu Xiu doing this. Because next, whether it is Longxi or Sichuan, even if they fight, they will not need so many troops.

In this way, most of the army will be disbanded, leaving only some elites, and letting the soldiers go home to farm and recuperate. No one can make a mistake.

But the problem is that in the process of disbanding the army, Liu Xiu intentionally or unintentionally sent home all the veterans who had followed the founding generals to kill him.

Or let them directly switch from military to civil service and break away from the military system.

This was very clever, intentionally or unintentionally, and directly weakened the generals' control over the army.

He is still aboveboard, and you can't find any fault with him. This is the strength of Liu Xiu.

Of course, these things are very obscurely recorded in history books and cannot be seen without looking carefully.

But obviously, after this disarmament, basically all the founding generals lost their direct armies. After that, the military system of the Eastern Han Dynasty actually had the phenomenon of soldiers not knowing the generals. Many of the founding generals could no longer directly control the army with their personal prestige.

The combination of age advantage, military merit advantage, and early disarmament allowed Liu Xiu to easily suppress the founding military generals group.

When the military generals became honest, the civil servants naturally stopped at the same time. Next, when Liu Xiu talked about letting them retire and go home, the resistance would naturally be much smaller.

In addition, during the previous war period, there were three special events that prevented these founding heroes from uniting. These three events were Peng Chong's rebellion, Liu Yang's rebellion, and the surrender of the five counties in Hexi.

To put it simply, when Liu Xiu was in charge of Hebei, Peng Chong, the governor of Yuyang, Geng Kuang, the governor of Shanggu, and Liu Yang, the true king, all turned to Liu Xiu with all their forces.

Among the twenty-eight generals of Yuntai, many of them were actually their subordinates at first.

Therefore, if these three people are still alive at this time, then the generals under their command will definitely follow them and form different political groups.

Once a group is formed, it is inevitable that they will form a group to fight for power with Liu Xiu.

But the problem was that just over a year after Liu Xiu ascended the throne, Peng Chong rebelled, and Liu Yang was labeled as a rebel and was directly killed.

Only Geng Kuang later firmly sided with Liu Xiu and helped Liu Xiu destroy Peng Chong.

However, after Peng Chong was destroyed, Geng Kuang was also taken back to Luoyang by Liu Xiu. Although Liu Xiu later gave Geng Kuang the best living treatment, he did not let him have too much power.

On the contrary, it was his son Geng Yan who was later promoted by Liu Xiu.

These two cases directly led to the same result. That was the old tribe that originally belonged to Peng Chong or Liu Yang after the Eastern Han Dynasty unified the world.

It is difficult to unite and form a strong political group. Simply put, the so-called Hebei faction has been weakened.

For example, on Peng Chong's side, the person with the highest status in Peng Chong's old department was Wu Han, who ranked second among the Yuntai generals.

But even so, there are still some people in other Peng Chong's old tribe who are unwilling to respect Wu Han as the boss, and everyone sticks together.

This is actually a matter of mentality.

We were both on the same level back then, and it was even possible that Wu Han was my subordinate. Now that you are doing well, we can stay together and protect our own interests, no problem.

But forming a powerful political group to compete with Liu Xiu for power would definitely not work.

In addition, later when Liu Xiu attacked Hexi, Dou Rong, the leader of the five counties in Hexi, directly led the entire five counties in Hexi to surrender in an organized manner.

After they surrendered, Dou Rong was naturally the boss of all Hexi faction officials. The emergence of the Hexi faction will inevitably occupy the positions of many groups that originally contributed to the founding of the country.

But at the same time, none of the officials from the Hexi faction were founding heroes. In this way, Liu Xiu could use the power of Hexi officials to suppress other founding heroes.

These three special events directly caused the power of the group of founding heroes to be compressed to an extremely low level.

Moreover, all of this happened before Liu Xiu officially asked them to retire. Therefore, when Liu Xiu began to prepare for their retirement, they were completely unable to compete with Liu Xiu.

The above are basically the reasons why Liu Xiu was able to let all these heroes retire and go home.

As for why these heroes did not resist after Liu Xiu did this, the reason is even simpler.

The first reason, and also the main reason, is that Liu Xiu gave too much!
  If we use modern terms, Liu Xiu's method is actually to exchange equity for management rights. Long before Liu Xiu completely unified the world, Liu Xiu had already begun to ennoble heroes, and later continued to ennoble them.

For example, Deng Yu, the leader of Yuntai generals, later directly obtained the fiefdoms of four counties! From then on, as long as their family didn't commit any major troubles, they would basically have enough food and clothing!
  Of course, the Deng family only has the right to enjoy taxes on the fiefdoms in these four counties, but has no direct management power. But even if you only have the right to dividends, the temptation is quite big.

Therefore, Liu Xiu’s operating method is actually the classic ‘dividend rights for management rights’. From this time on, most of the founding generals became shareholders rather than workers. So psychologically, they can accept this result.

The second reason is relatively obscure, but equally important, and that is that the heroes in the early Eastern Han Dynasty generally had relatively high academic qualifications.

A considerable number of the still-living founding heroes of the Eastern Han Dynasty had attended Imperial College and were considered high-level intellectuals.

For example, Deng Yu, the leader of the heroes, and Zhu You, who wrote the letter of recommendation at this time, were both Liu Xiu's classmates at Taixue.

The recommended Jia Fu was also a Confucian scholar at that time, and it was said that he was particularly good at "Shang Shu". He was once praised by his teacher as "a talent for generals and ministers."

High academic qualifications are actually a very important thing.

Because this means that after they give up power, they can turn to learning and consume their energy academically.

In fact, you might as well think about it from another perspective: What do most people do when they become officials or pursue power? In the ancient social environment, the answer was actually very simple.

The most basic thing is for money and resources, and for a better life.

After gaining financial freedom, the next thing they pursue is personal value, or a job that can consume their energy.

As a founding hero, his status goes without saying much. After Liu Xiu's massive enfeoffment, the dividend rights given out basically met the wealth needs of this group of people.

After that, the only thing they need is actually the realization of self-worth. In other dynasties, the cultural level of the founding generals was generally not very high. This means that when one of them retires and returns home, they will face a state of having nothing to do.

But it was different during the Eastern Han Dynasty. Many of the founding heroes’ original ambitions were actually academics.

For example, Deng Yu, Zhu You and others, if there had not been the scuffle in the late New Dynasty, their normal life would have been to study academics.
  Then he was elected as a local magistrate. It's just that the troubled times that followed changed their lives.

Therefore, now that they have retired, they can engage in academic research and continue to shine. As a result, many people are actually willing to retire. Because after retirement, they have other things to do.

It is for these reasons that in the end, after Liu Xiu proposed to retire them, the founding generals of the Eastern Han Dynasty and other founding heroes successfully retired home. Although some people were reluctant, they still had no choice but to be obedient in front of Liu Xiu's imperial power.

I have to say that Liu Xiu treated the founding heroes really well. This ending is basically perfect.

In the Jiaofang Hall, Guo Shengtong looked at Liu Han, "Now that the military generals have been demobilized and returned to their fields, and there are vacancies in the imperial court, it is a good time to ask for credit like your father."

Liu Han rolled his eyes at him.

Guo Shengtong puffed up his cheeks and said angrily, "What do you mean by that look in your eyes? I can't control you anymore? You are the prince, your wings are strong, right? You don't recognize me, right?"

"Queen Mother, please calm down. The Guo family has received countless titles, and the merits are the same but different rewards. The Queen Mother is also very knowledgeable. Don't you know that Kang Long has regrets?

The higher you are in a high position, the more likely you are to suffer disasters. This family of relatives suffers from the fact that they don’t know how to advance or retreat. When they marry, they must marry a prince, and when they marry, they hope to get a princess. Therefore, if the trees are beautiful in the forest, the wind will destroy them; if they are piled up on the shore, they will flow. It will be turbulent; if you do something higher than others, everyone will reject it.

Wealth and honor always come to an end, and people should be content. If people's hearts are not enough, it will be over sooner or later. Wasn't the former Han Dynasty destroyed because of the exclusive power of his relatives, which led to Wang Mang's ambition and usurpation of the throne?
  Back then, Huo Guang might have succeeded if he had his heart set on it. He was also a relative.

With this experience, my father must not be very defensive. The greater the strength of our Guo family, the more worried he will be, and the more unstable my position as crown prince will be. "

The former Han Dynasty in Liu Han's mouth is naturally the Western Han Dynasty, but now everyone calls it that.

Guo Shengtong was silent. He looked at Liu Han, his face full of sadness. "My mother misunderstood, what should I do now? If we don't fight, are we just watching his Yin family become stronger and stronger? If this continues, our Guo family, and the Sooner or later, your game will be over, and deposed princes have never had a good ending since ancient times."

"I will cultivate my own power, but I can't involve the Guo family too much. The more powerful the Guo family is, the less direction my father will be..."

"Oh, that's all it takes."

(End of this chapter)