Ji Han Da Sima

Chapter 419: Tied to the Chariot

Starting from paying homage to Liu Bei at noon, everyone discussed official matters until the afternoon. The discussion ended just before meal time.

Huo, Ge, and Fa wanted to retire, but Liu Bei stayed with them to have a meal together. The meals eaten by the four monarchs and ministers were mostly ordinary meals.

Liu Bei, unlike Cao Cao, did not like extravagant enjoyment much. If the Mi family hadn't been born into a wealthy family and liked gold, silver, jade and silk, Liu Bei would probably have dressed more simply.

According to what Liu Bei said, since the world was in chaos, most of the people were poor. Although he was sitting in the south, he did not dare to enjoy extravagantly to disrupt the atmosphere of Wuhan city.

Rice-wheat rotation farming has been popularized among the people, and their grain income has increased significantly in recent years. Although Liu Bei issued an edict to reward orphans and elderly people, and increased official salaries. However, the palace expenses were kept at a fixed amount, and Mi was not allowed to increase the amount.

Increasing official salary is not a joke.

In the troubled times of the world, there are more redundant officials than before, but the population is smaller than before. Coupled with the expansion of the army, the actual salary that officials can receive is greatly reduced.

Don't just look at the county governor, who has two thousand stone officials, but due to years of war, the number of people is sparse. The county has been subdivided into three levels: upper, middle and lower. Even the superiors of the counties were under the jurisdiction of the prefectural governors, so the actual salaries received by the county governors were also different.

Although there are no explicit regulations, in terms of operation, if the county governor of the lower county with a small population wants to be promoted, he will be promoted to the middle county, or he will be promoted to the upper county.

For example, Huo Jun's current salary, in addition to the food and housing, is five dendrobiums per day, a monthly salary of 150 dendrobiums, and an annual salary of 1,825 dendrobes.

According to the salary of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Huo Jun's salary next month would be 350 dendrobium, and his annual salary would be 4,200 shi. The salary given by Liu Bei was less than half.

If all the governors of the dozens of counties in the Southern Han Dynasty received two thousand shi, and the military force expanded, the Southern Han Dynasty would have been unable to make ends meet.

Nowadays, it seems that the prefect of a county is a minister with two thousand dan, but in fact he may be an ordinary official who receives 600 dan. If he is an official in a large county, he may have one thousand dan, which is half of the previous salary.

Historically, when Jiang Ji served as the Central Guard, in addition to his own greed for money, the reason for his corruption and bribery was probably because his salary was too small. If high-ranking officials in the Three Kingdoms were not corrupt and were honest, they might really be penniless when they died.

Huo Jun was able to win the hearts of the Jianghuai generals. In addition to leading them to fight all year round, he also used a large amount of money from the city to reward his subordinates every year.

This is why every time Liu Bei goes to a state, he sends the state's central government treasury to reward civil and military officials. Because those civil and military personnel may have often been in trouble since they followed Liu Bei. There is no shortage of possibilities. Those civil and military personnel who followed Liu Bei even paid to go to work.

Therefore, with the increase in rice and wheat production, Liu Bei increased the salaries of the officials, which made all the officials very happy.

After the monarch and his ministers finished their meal, the attendants left with the dishes in hand.

Huo Jun wiped the grease stains from his mouth and asked, "Jun heard that the prince and Yu will get married next year, but is this true?"

"It's true!"

Liu Bei rinsed his mouth and said with a smile: "The orphans are getting older. If the slaves do not get married later in life, they are afraid that they will not be able to see their grandchildren, so it is better to let the boys get married as soon as possible."

Liu Chan is young, only 12 or 13 years old this year. It is too early for him to get married. But he couldn't bear Liu Bei's desire to have a grandson, so he had no choice but to let Liu Chan get married as soon as possible. Of course, Liu Bei also had plans to consolidate Liu Chan's position as crown prince and chose Zhang Fei's eldest daughter as his crown princess.

Zhuge Liang held up his fan and smiled, saying: "Your Majesty has chosen General Yide's eldest daughter as his Crown Princess. He wants to hire her next autumn and choose a good and auspicious day for the Crown Prince to get married."

Liu Bei held a cup of tea and criticized: "Now that all the ministers have given birth to children, Gai Wei and Kong will have no children until nearly forty years next year. This is not a long-term solution!"

After saying that, Liu Beixu pointed to Fazheng and said: "Everyone who is filial or honest will have grandchildren, but Kongming alone will have no children. If you are a hundred years old, who can succeed Kongming?"

Seeing that the flames of war were burning on him, Zhuge Liang showed a helpless look. No one in the country dares to criticize him for the issue of heirs. Only Liu Bei, as a monarch and an elder, can criticize him.

"I heard that Kong Ming has no concubines, why not take one now?" Fazheng said.

"Concubinage?"

Zhuge Liang hesitated a lot and found it difficult to answer.

Seeing Zhuge Liang like this, he smiled and said, "If Kong Ming doesn't want to take a concubine because of his family background, why not adopt a son from his brother to continue the incense."

Zhuge Liang glanced at Huo Jun and sighed without saying a word. I probably won't be able to get rid of the reputation of being afraid of my wife in this life. He obviously loves his wife, how could he become afraid of her!

Liu Bei put the tea cup on the table and said, "I heard that Ziyu already has many children. Why don't Kong Ming adopt a son from Ziyu to continue the line of heirs?"

The elder brother Zhuge Jin has three sons and one daughter. The eldest son Zhuge Ke is sixteen years old, and the second son Zhuge Qiao is fourteen years old, and they are all about to reach adulthood.

As for Zhuge Jin's official position, due to Zhuge Liang's relationship with the central government, Zhuge Jin served as the prefect of Yuzhang.

Zhuge Liang thought about it for a long time and said, "Liang Yi is the son of his adopted brother, but he needs to ask his opinion on this matter."

"I've asked Ziyu before, and she thinks so!"

Liu Bei looked cunning and said, "After today, Kong Mingke will write to Tzuyu to discuss the matter of adoption."

Obviously Liu Bei was worried that Zhuge Liang would delay the adoption, so he directly asked Zhuge Jin for his opinion on Zhuge Liang's behalf, saving Zhuge Liang from using excuses later.

Zhuge Liang stood up and bowed, cupped his hands and said, "Thank you so much, Your Majesty, for your love!" "I can't bear to see you working so hard on state affairs and forgetting your own affairs, so I do this." Liu Bei said with a smile.

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

"good!"

Liu Bei looked at Huo Jun and asked, "I remember that Zhongmiao's second son, Yi, is about the same age as Jinu. I wonder if you can get engaged to your second son?"

Huo Yi and Liu Chan were born in the same year. Later, Huo Jun moved his family to Wuhan. Liu Bei asked Huo Yi to be Liu Chan's companion, or classmate, to study literature and martial arts together.

"Report to the King!"

Although Huo Jun didn't understand what Liu Bei meant, he said truthfully: "The dog is young. Although a matchmaker came to the door, he was rejected by the lady."

"The slave has been engaged, and the gentleman is about to get married!"

After pondering for a long time, Liu Bei said with a smile: "In the past, the Yide twins were taught by their mother. The two girls were gentle and skillful, and they were good at embroidery. They are really good matches. Now I am a slave and marry the eldest daughter. Zhong Miao is not as good as a gentleman marrying the second daughter." "

"We have known each other since we were young, and our relationship is irreversible. Now that we are married to Yide's daughter, we are married to each other. This may make for a good story!"

"This~"

Huo Jundun was surprised. Previously, Liu Bei married his concubine to Huo Fan, but now he unexpectedly wanted Liu Chan and Huo Yi to become brothers-in-law.

"Is it possible that Zhong Miao doesn't want to?"

"No!"

Huo Jun cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty is so kind to me, and I can't express my gratitude. However, the two girls under Yide's knees have similar looks because they are twins. I'm afraid there's something wrong with Jun."

"The king and his ministers are one, what's wrong with that?"

Liu Bei scratched his sparse beard and said with a smile: "You have no objection, so we will settle on this."

Liu Bei had no objection, but Huo Jun would have no objection.

In Fazheng's envious eyes, Huo Jun then bowed down and thanked you: "Jun thanks the king on behalf of Quanzi, and Huo Jun swears to repay the kindness of the king."

Letting Huo Yi marry Xiao Zhang was mostly Liu Bei's reward for Huo Jun's refusal to resign as King of Huainan. It was also a way of tying the Huo family to Liu Chan's chariot and ensuring the interests of the Huo family.

Ruling the world with a single man was the political style of Emperor Qin, not Liu Bang's style of conduct. Liu Bei, who often wanted to imitate his ancestor Liu Bang, naturally wanted to learn from him.

The world was in chaos, and Liu Bang united the princes and kings with different surnames to fight against Xiang Yu; Xiang Yu was defeated, and Liu Bang united the military merit group to fight against the princes and kings with different surnames; in order to suppress Guandong, he used the military merit group and the princes and kings with the Liu surname to control the grassroots and the upper levels respectively.

After Liu Bang's death, the check and balance between the military group and the princes and kings surnamed Liu ensured the continuation of the rule of the Western Han Dynasty.

However, for Liu Bei, it was Liu Bei's current plan to unite the military merit group for the Northern Expedition, stabilize the rule of the Southern Han Dynasty, and assist him in the Northern Expedition.

When Huo Jun came out of the palace, it was already dark.

Back at the house, Master Bu came towards him, frowning and asked worriedly: "What did your husband say to the king when he entered the palace? Has the king been affected by the rumors?"

Huo Jun held Master Bu's hand and said comfortingly: "The king and his ministers trust each other, and it is difficult to separate them despite rumors, fame and fortune."

"That's good!"

A smile appeared on Bu Lianshi's sad face and he said: "I wonder if my husband can have food in the palace? What do you want to eat today? Can I let the kitchen cook it?"

"Your Majesty, let me have a meal in the palace so that the kitchen will not have to work!" Huo Jun said.

With that said, Huo Jun rubbed Trainer Bu into the hall and whispered: "Yi'er's marriage has been arranged by the king."

Trainer Bu looked happy at first, and then asked with confusion: "The king no longer has a daughter of the right age. I wonder who Yi'er will be engaged to?"

Huo Jun leaned into Trainer Bu's ear and whispered. The trainer couldn't help but open his lips slightly when he said he was giving in, feeling surprised.

"The king is so kind!"

(End of this chapter)