I rode and slashed unparalleled in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 330: Discussing merits and rewards, Su Yao is sent to a remote frontier

As the saying goes, an honest person doesn't speak in secret. Lu Zhi had a long-standing reputation and a straightforward personality. He was not the type to beat around the bush with others, so he told the truth right away.

It turns out that, in the end, it all comes down to four words: great achievements are hard to be rewarded.

This Northern Expedition was massive and the emperor himself led the expedition, but it ended extremely quickly, with victory achieved in less than a month. It almost became a one-man show by Su Yao.

The two strong cities were all taken in one day, and the mighty central army and the allied forces of the princes became auxiliary troops to clean up the battlefield.
Such efficient performance naturally shocked everyone, and how to reward him became a major issue that everyone argued about.

Some people think that this Northern Expedition cannot be viewed in isolation. It was essentially a final mopping-up battle after the Plains War. The enemy was already in chaos and anyone could easily defeat them. It was just that Su Yao's speed was too fast, which gave him an advantage. His military performance should not be overestimated.

To be honest, this is the mainstream view.

But some people also believe that Su Yao’s performance in the Battle of Pingyuan is enough to prove his extraordinary military talent and loyalty. This Northern Expedition has further consolidated his reputation. If he is not rewarded generously, it may be difficult to convince the people, and the local princes will laugh at the central government.

During the heated discussions within the Shangshu Tai, two completely different opinions were eventually formed.

On the one hand, since Su Yao's military exploits were too conspicuous, and he had been greatly rewarded in the Battle of Pingyuan and promoted to Marquis of Guanjun, the Shangshutai was embarrassed about how to reward him this time.

On the other hand, some people worried that excessive rewards would further increase Su Yao's power and even cause instability within the court.

As one of the main planners of the Northern Expedition and the actual commander-in-chief of the entire army, Lu Zhi not only had the most intuitive understanding of Su Yao's military achievements, but the relationship between the two was also not as rigid as that between him and the general.

Therefore, the court decided to send him to communicate first and seek a solution that could both demonstrate the court's recognition of Su Yao's achievements and maintain internal stability of the court.

"The marriage and the additional fief of 3,000 yuan have already been decided."

"In addition, the court is planning to appoint you as a county governor."

A county governor?
Cheng Lian, Liu Bei and others who were accompanying them gasped.

He is a high-ranking official!

The most important thing is that a 20-year-old prefect is simply unheard of.

Although they were shocked, Su Yao and Wei Ming nodded secretly. This result was within their expectations.

Su Yao's current official position is Lieutenant General of the Tiger Guards, a rank of 2,000 stones. The next level up is the Prime Minister of a vassal state or a local governor, a rank of 2,000 stones.

According to the normal promotion path, except for the relatives of the queen who follow the route of the queen, ordinary people who want to serve as important officials above the Nine Ministers in the central court basically have to have experience serving in local positions.

As the saying goes, "a general becomes a prime minister", there was no barrier between civil and military officials in the Han Dynasty. It was inconceivable that someone who wanted to serve in the center of power had no knowledge of local government affairs.

This time, Su Yao was promoted repeatedly by the emperor, either because he acted in an emergency or because he was favored by the emperor. He skipped those positions and stepped into the rank of two thousand stone official. He was first appointed as the Cavalry Commandant and later promoted to the Lieutenant General of the Tiger Guards.

This resulted in his next promotion path being blocked.

Without local experience, no one above the level of Nine Ministers dared to let him take the position.

Then you can only continue to the end of the military general line, and the next step is to become a general.

And the General.
It is still very valuable today.

Conventional generals of miscellaneous titles were basically appointed during every battle and dismissed after the war.

Therefore, there is still a gap between the present and the time when there were as many generals as dogs after the chaos in the world.

While the order of the imperial court still exists today, the General of the Household and the Colonel are the highest positions that a military officer can achieve. The imperial court will never easily grant the higher-ranking generals, such as the General and the General of the Cavalry, to anyone because of their privilege of establishing their own government.

During the Later Han Dynasty, these top-level generals were exclusively used by relatives of the emperor and eunuchs to assist in government affairs.

The current emperor attaches great importance to this. Even the great general He Jin was appointed as a general urgently because of the situation during the Yellow Turban Rebellion.

Others, such as Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun, were only given the title of Zhonglang Jiang (General of the Central Army) and were promoted to generals for their merits after the war. The General of Chariots and Cavalry was divided into three equal parts: left, middle, and right.
Such an operation shocked the people all over the world, and they were full of criticism about the stinginess of the emperor.

However, even so, shortly after the war was settled, these generals were dismissed and their powers were taken back by the court for various reasons.

It was like this before, and it was the same this time. Whether it was the former general Lu Zhi who was currently leading the Northern Expedition, or the left general Huangfu Song and the right general Dong Zhuo who were urgently appointed to deal with the chaos in the northwest, they were all appointed for a reason, and after returning to the capital, they would still have to take back their generalships.

Therefore, anyone who has a little understanding of current politics knows how difficult it is to become a general under this stingy and cautious supreme ruler.

It can be said that in the few years before the death of Emperor Ling of Han, the title of general still maintained the consistent style of the Later Han Dynasty and was extremely valuable.

Therefore, Su Yao's rank of Tiger Guards General can be said to have reached the pinnacle of military officers.

Going further up this road, there is now a pit for each carrot.

The only options were for General He Jin, General He Miao, or General Dong Zhong to abdicate and give way to more capable people.

But these three people represent important roles in the balance of power in the struggle for the throne between the Queen and the Queen Mother. Not to mention that it is impossible for them to make room for a 20-year-old junior like you, they have not done anything wrong, so how can you move lightly?
So the emperor was naturally in a dilemma.

He now regretted extremely that he had been given the title of Champion Marquis in excitement after the Battle of Pingyuan.

If he had known that this kid could shine so brightly in the Northern Expedition, he should have waited until all the wars were over before rewarding him.

There is no need to embarrass yourself now.

It's really weird.

The rank of Tiger Guards and Lieutenant General has always been an important and noble position, and this position can be said to be a place for the powerful to build up their experience.

How could someone like him achieve such great achievements so quickly and get promoted? ? ?
It's really difficult.

In this case, he could only give him the ten thousand year reward that the boy had been longing for. Originally, Liu Hong wanted to keep it for another one or two years to see how the boy performed.

Now it seems that I can only give it up reluctantly, and add some fiefdom and reward money to deal with it.

After all, in Emperor Liu Hong's own plan, Su Yao should stay in the center to defend the imperial power, check and balance other forces, and escort Liu Xie's growth.

However, something happened that Liu Hong did not expect.

"Lord Su has made outstanding contributions. Your Majesty's reward is too light, which may cause criticism from the world."

When discussing the merits with important ministers on the way to Lunu, it was He Jin who first expressed his opposition.

The reason why He Jin spoke up for Su Yao and sought credit was very simple.

After losing Yuan Shu, he decided to fully adopt Liu Biao's strategy of praising and killing.

Su Yao's achievement this time is a good opportunity to expel him from the center with justification.

So He Jin became the leader of the praise group, and together with a group of faction officials, he praised Su Yao's abilities and great achievements in various ways, demanding a promotion. Without a promotion, the army could not be reassured.

He bluntly said that he should first be promoted to a local position to gain experience for a while, and then transferred back to the central government to serve as a senior official after he has made achievements.

However, the noble and powerful central military officer, the Tiger Guards, was sent to other places for training.

Although it is for the purpose of further advancement in the future, it is really difficult to say which is better or worse in terms of rank and power.

Therefore, Lu Zhi and everyone else also had the intention of appeasing the people this time.

But, how would they know.

Su Yao is not an ordinary person.

Being able to stay away from the central government that was bound by various parties and go to the local area to become a frontier official who could get practical things done was exactly what he wanted.

The crux of the matter is:

"Then I wonder where the court wants me to take up my post?"

(End of this chapter)