Chapter 30: The Proclamation Against the Bandits

  Xun Yu did not tell anyone his thoughts, but Liu Xuan was able to perceive that Mr. Xun Wenruo was no longer as dull and uninterested in everything as he had been before.

  Estimated that oneself a speech, let this Xun Yu thought clearly what, at the same time for later a period of time will happen what had expectation, want to take a good look once lively?

  "Whatever he thinks, Xun Yu won't be able to escape my control for now!"

  As long as Xun Yu does not leave the court, Liu Xuan may have a chance to thoroughly bring him under his command and make plans for himself.

  It's no wonder that Liu Xuan attaches so much importance to a talented person, it's because his current identity fundamentally restricts him from recruiting talent.

  Because he is an emperor, he cannot casually run out of the palace, so it is impossible for him to take the initiative to contact those heroes scattered all over the world.

  At the same time, due to his identity as the Son of Heaven, he also cannot promote and use people he values like those vassal lords - in other words, the official positions held by Liu Xuan are too high-end, and it is impossible to directly promote some people who are not even white-robed officials to such a high position - Guan Yu and Dian Wei are fugitives, not even comparable to white-robed officials.

  He was able to promote and use, basically all the people who had already entered the imperial court system. Among these people, it was not easy to find someone who could be used, so after discovering Xun Yu, he would pay such attention to him - in any case, Xun Yu solved his own strategist problem, and later encountered what problems also have a personal can together consult.

  What made Liu Xuan happiest was that Xun Yu was right by his side, and he could ask him questions at any time, which made him the most happy.

  However, at this time he did not go to discuss with Xun Yu what to do next, but sat in his own palace, looking at the woman in front of him and got a headache.

  It would be more accurate to say that she was a girl, rather than a woman. The girl saw Liu Xuan enter and immediately paid her respects, saying: "Your subject Cai Yan pays homage to Your Majesty!"

  The emperor's grand wedding is a very important matter, even the three dukes and nine ministers are all busy with it. They have to select an auspicious day, grant amnesty to the whole country, and so on. The rituals are also extremely complicated, if in normal years, being busy for a year is not unusual.

  But now the Han dynasty is in decline, the world is in chaos, and there are powerful ministers controlling the government. The great ministers do not have such thoughts, and Liu Xuan does not like to be too troublesome, so the emperor's grand wedding was hastily settled.

  Although all the necessary steps were taken, things were always a bit hasty, and not even announced to the world, only the officials in the imperial court knew that the emperor had taken Cai Yan, the daughter of Minister Cai Yong, as his concubine, with the intention of making her empress.

  In the imperial harem of the Han Dynasty, the hierarchy of concubines was quite simple, especially during the Eastern Han period, when there were only three ranks: Empress, Guiren and Meiren.

  The queen is not to be mentioned, the noble person is a proper emperor's concubine, enjoying many treatments, and also receiving a salary every month, while the beauty has nothing at all, can only hope to please the emperor more, and then get some rewards.

  Cai Yan entered the palace, and was soon to be promoted to Guiren. However, Liu Xuan didn't have the heart to pay attention to these things at this time. He was there, recklessly sizing up the woman who would soon become his wife.

  "In the past, I was just a loser, but after crossing over, I was busy cultivating and expanding my empire, so I didn't put too much thought into romantic matters. Now that I think about it, Cai Yan is actually my first officially married wife."

  Thinking of this, I couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness, especially when seeing Cai Yan's youthful appearance, the feeling of sadness in my heart grew even stronger.

  "How old are you this year?"

  "I am sixteen years old this year."

  Sixteen?

  Isn't this the legendary flower of 28 years? Liu Xuan calculated that Cai Yan should have been born in 174, according to Liu Xuan's habit, she should be 15 years old now. However, at that time, it was customary to calculate virtual age, which happened to be 16.

  "This... is a bit small, can't bear to part with it!"

  The corners of his mouth twitched involuntarily, and Liu Xuan had to casually bring up a topic to shift the attention: "Do you have any news?"

  "My surname is Wen and my given name is Ji!"

  Liu Xuan naturally knew that Cai Yan was named Wenji, and later generations also often called her Cai Wenji. Although he knew that the historical Cai Yan should be named Zhaoji, when revising history to avoid taboo of Sima Zhao, it was changed to Wenji. But who let this world be more inclined towards history? So naturally there wasn't such a thing.

  Compared to being speechless, Liu Xuan found himself at a loss for words and could only say: "It's getting late, let's get some rest."

  Then Cai Yan's face turned red, and after nodding in response, she very gently helped Liu Xuan remove his clothes, and finally lay down together on the dragon bed.

  That night... nothing happened.

  Liu Xuan got up early on the second day, then washed and had breakfast as usual, and later brought Zhang Rang and Cao Jie to attend the court meeting on time. He watched Dong Zhuo's performance in the imperial court, and finally dispersed on time after the court meeting, strolled around the palace, and began to handle some government affairs.

  The days passed by so quietly that the second year of Yonghan came quickly. On the first day after New Year's, Liu Xuan suddenly said: "This year has finally arrived!"

  At that time, only Xun Yu was by his side, and he heard the words curiously: "Your Majesty, why did you say this?"

  Liu Xuan put down the memorial he was holding and smiled: "Since last autumn, Dong Zhuo's actions have spread throughout the country. Plus, since I ascended to the throne, I've hardly done anything, so all the heroes of the world should think that I'm under Dong Zhuo's control."

  Xun Yu immediately realized: "Dong Zhuo is in power, and the heroes of the world are dissatisfied. In this case, these external 'lords' may have a big move to fight for their own interests."

  What is so-called "clearing the emperor's side" and "assisting the Han dynasty" are just excuses. What these warlords really care about is that if they lead their troops to storm into the capital Luoyang and kill Dong Zhuo, then wouldn't they obtain Dong Zhuo's current position for themselves?

  Of course, it can't be said that all heroes think this way, but wanting to gain some benefits for oneself is almost a necessary thing.

  Liu Xuan was not prepared to wait any longer, after all, without Cao Cao's assassination of Dong Zhuo and his return to his hometown to raise the righteous army and issue a proclamation calling on the heroes of the world, when would those heroes with their own thoughts in their hearts come together?

  It is better to take the initiative than to wait passively.

  "Has Your Majesty made any arrangements?" Xun Yu thought for a moment and finally asked curiously. Of course, understanding the detailed situation would allow him to make more subtle inferences. Since the Son of Heaven wanted to use himself as an advisor, he should at least let himself understand the current detailed situation.

  Liu Xuan naturally did not deceive him and directly said, "Yesterday, I sent Meng De to the Lu Zigang's mansion to have him write a letter to someone."

  "Someone?" Xun Yu didn't care about the content of the letter, nor did he care how Liu Xuan thought to go find Lu Zhi. Instead, he was curious who Lu Zhi had written a letter to?

  "Could it be Yuan Shao of Bohai?"

  Now Yuan Shao is the governor of Bohai, pacifying the local area, gathering talented people and having a large army at his disposal. If Liu Xuan wants to send an envoy with troops to attack Dong Zhuo, then Yuan Shao seems to be the best choice - not to mention that the Yuan family has produced three high-ranking officials in four generations, their reputation is granted by the Han imperial court, even if it's just a gesture, they can't refuse the emperor's secret edict.

  After all, Yuan Shao was not yet the lord of the four states of Hebei, with a million troops, the number one northern warlord, and the emperor's secret edict still had to be obeyed.

  He did not want to, Liu Xuan shook his head and said: "I heard that Lu Zhi has a disciple named Liu Bei, also known as Xuande, who claims to be a descendant of the Han dynasty. In the past few years when the Yellow Turbans were rampant, he had repeatedly made military achievements. Both Liu Yan, the governor of Yi Province, and Liu Yu, the governor of You Province, had written to the emperor to praise his merits. Later, he was protected by Gongsun Zan, the governor of Beiping, and is now serving as the magistrate of Pingyuan County."

  Liu Xuan simply told Liu Bei's situation, then shifted the blame to Cao Cao, naturally not arousing anyone's suspicion. Besides, when he chatted with Cao Cao casually, they indeed talked about Liu Bei.

  At that time, Cao Cao had a high evaluation of Liu Bei, thinking that this man would definitely have great achievements in the future. As for the so-called identity of the Han Dynasty's royal relatives, no one paid much attention to it.

  The Han Dynasty, since its founding by Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang, has been known for having the most descendants among all the dynasties. Just one of Liu Bei's ancestors, Prince Zhongshan Liu Sheng, had as many as 120 sons.

  Others may not be as exaggerated as Liu Sheng, but they are also numerous. It is said that during the peak period of the Han Dynasty, anyone with the surname Liu was related to the royal family. To put it bluntly, as long as you have the surname Liu, you can somehow establish a connection with the Han imperial clan.

  The key issue is whether you are a member of the imperial clan or not, it's not that just because you say so or really have that bloodline it's settled, the most important point is whether the emperor recognizes this or not.

  If the emperor acknowledges, even if your ancestors really have no connection with the royal family, he can still find a connection for you - after all, Liu's descendants are all over the world, and carefully searching will definitely find someone who matches your ancestor, so isn't this relationship directly established?

  If the emperor doesn't acknowledge it, even if you really recite the genealogy, it's useless. Anyway, according to the customs at that time, this relative of yours has been separated from the main family for 108,000 miles, and even if they don't recognize each other, no one would think it's inappropriate.

  Liu Bei's situation is about the same, he may indeed be a member of the Han imperial clan, but without recognition from the emperor, this identity can only be talked about - if others take it seriously, that's fine, but if they don't care about it, you're also helpless.

  A typical example is that Liu Yan was quite polite to Liu Bei, so he was still quite polite. Of course, it's not ruled out that at the time, Liu Yan wanted to use Liu Bei as a gun, so he deliberately pulled some close relationships and gave Liu Bei some better face.

  Lu Zhi didn't take it seriously. He had been in the imperial court for a long time, and the emperor saw him every day. Liu Bei, this distant relative who was beyond his reach, really couldn't be taken to heart by him.

  Later on, if it wasn't for Liu Bei leading his troops to go and assist Lü Plant, I reckon Lü Plant would never have remembered that he had once taught a student named Liu Bei.

  Although this was the case, Lü Zhi still didn't take Liu Bei seriously. So when Cao Cao came to his door and mentioned Liu Bei as soon as he opened his mouth, Lü Zhi was also bewildered and did not understand what Cao Cao meant.

  "Now Dong Zhuo is in power, being tyrannical and extremely arrogant. Cao wants to rally the heroes of the world to raise an army to punish Dong Zhuo, but he himself is in the capital and also needs to protect Your Majesty completely, so it's not easy to take action. We need someone outside to issue a proclamation to discuss the bandit."