Chapter 95: The Three Dukes, Six Ministers and Nine Chamberlains

  In the 2nd year of Jian'an, in the autumn of AD 191.

  In the spring, Li Jue and Guo Si rebelled in the northwest. The Emperor personally led a campaign against them, and after several months, he pacified the various commanderies of the northwest. The two rebels were beheaded, and by autumn, the army had returned to Luoyang.

  It was originally a matter that would have been recorded in history books with just one sentence, but due to Liu Xuan's casual remark of an imperial decree, it led to endless debates in the court, and ultimately it all boiled down to his words: "Exterminate his nine clans!"

  The law of killing several clans originated in Qin, and the Han Dynasty followed it, but at this time it was only a matter of exterminating three clans. Not to mention nine clans, even the idea of ??killing five clans did not emerge, as a result, Liu Xuan directly skipped the stage of five clans and seven clans and launched an impact on a higher level.

  "Your Majesty, the law of exterminating a whole clan is too severe. Although such a law exists, it has rarely been enforced. Now that Li Jue and Guo Si have rebelled and plotted against you, although their crimes deserve punishment, to implicate and execute nine clans would provoke people all over the empire to rise up in arms."

  This criticism is that Liu Xuan used punishment too heavily, too cruelly, especially the law of exterminating a whole clan. Any emperor who has used it cannot escape being called a tyrant.

  Even if he was as cruel as the First Emperor, he only annihilated three clans, but Liu Xuan came up with nine clans... It can be imagined how scholars of the world would evaluate him.

  What's more, all the officials in the imperial court were extremely opposed to such cruel punishment. Because once the emperor set this precedent, they couldn't guarantee that this cruel punishment wouldn't befall their own heads in the future.

  Although Li Jue was executed for the crime of treason, this group of people would not do such things, but who knows what kind of temperament the emperor has? What kind of crime is he particularly taboo in his heart? It's possible that if they gain a bit more power, the emperor will be dissatisfied and invite this kind of cruel punishment.

  What's even more deadly is that, even if they can control themselves and not cause trouble, they can't control others. The punishment of "exterminating the nine kin" is simply a net that catches all, and those who are related by blood or marriage will be implicated. If someone in the imperial court has their relatives implicated, wouldn't that be too unjust?

  So from whatever aspect, it is impossible to let the emperor issue this edict, so all the officials in the court are trying every means to stop the emperor from issuing the edict, with a posture that if the emperor does not change his words, we will never give up.

  But this kind of attitude, in Liu Xuan's eyes, was the most detestable. With a sideways glance, he saw that these guys were all sticking out their necks, and Liu Xuan felt infuriated: "Do they think I don't dare to unleash a massacre?"

  He also took a look at those who were opening and closing their mouths, basically all from large families - this group of people had complex backgrounds and extensive connections.

  Among them, there were families who saw the decline of the Han dynasty and began to make arrangements to preserve their clan's continuation - for example, the Xun family of Yingchuan. Although Xun Yu was still in the court and Xun Shuang lived in the capital, Liu Xuan knew that some members of the Xun family had already gone to Hebei to serve under Yuan Shao.

  Just seeing Xun Shuang, who usually doesn't run around everywhere, come to see him today, Liu Xuan knew what these guys were up to.

  Fortunately, Xun Yu and Xun You, the two people who had promoted him, were not here to oppose him. They only said a couple of words: "Too severe!" and then fell silent, sitting quietly without speaking, even when several people next to them gave them meaningful glances, they still maintained an air of indifference.

  "It wasn't in vain that I promoted you."

  Turning back to look at the group of officials, Liu Xuan finally shouted in anger: "Have I ever asked for your opinions? Draft the imperial edict and issue it directly, don't come to disturb me again!"

  One sentence shouted out, all the officials in the court were stunned, but there was still someone who refused to give up, shouting and yelling loudly, Liu Xuan took a look, it turned out to be Ma Zi again.

  "Does this guy think I really don't dare kill people?"

  The last time this horse character was muttering to itself, and now it's jumped out again. Liu Xuan also noticed that the left Zhonglang General Liu Fan seemed to have made eye contact with the horse character, apparently Liu Fan is the behind-the-scenes pusher.

  But whatever the case, Liu Xuan couldn't stand this jumping clown, and immediately shouted at the guards outside the palace: "The servant Ma has been shouting in the palace, disrespecting you before, disobeying orders, and accumulating crimes! Remove his official position, throw him into a death prison to await execution on a chosen day!"

  As soon as the words came out, all the officials in the hall were shocked, and they only felt a chill in the air lingering in the hall. Then, they stared blankly at Zhang Liao standing up and beckoning several imperial guards to rush into the hall and drag out the attendant Ma.

  "If we don't kill this guy, I'm afraid I won't be able to take charge of the imperial court in the future."

  He glanced at the officials with a cold eye, and Liu Xuan continued to speak as if nothing had happened: "Li Jue and Guo Si have been eliminated, and the northwest is peaceful. However, various civil affairs need to be handled properly, and you gentlemen should select suitable candidates as soon as possible and send them to various places to restore local government affairs."

  Although the officials were still in a state of shock and fear, they did not dare to respond casually after the emperor's instructions. They hastily put forward their respective opinions, which led to the matter of Ma being set aside, and instead recommended people they recognized for appointments to various positions.

  Cheng Yu, Man Chong and others were also mentioned. Liu Xuan noticed that they were not recommended by Xun Yu or Xun You, but rather by people who had connections with the Xun family.

  At the same time, some people suggested that the position of Weiwei in the nine ministers is vacant and should be filled with a suitable candidate as soon as possible. In addition, the six departments have been established for a long time, but the heads of the six departments are not all in place, shouldn't they also be settled?

  As soon as this was mentioned, all the civil and military officials immediately stopped talking about exterminating the nine clans of Li Jue and Guo Si, because they had already understood that the Emperor had made up his mind to kill Li Jue and Guo Si's nine clans before he would stop.

  At this time, the key is how to gain the greatest benefit for oneself in this new round of power reshuffle. At this time, even Wang Yun and others are no longer concerned about what Ma Chao will do, perhaps the only one who cares is Liu Fan, the left Zhonglang general.

  Liu Fan would be so concerned, even to the point of instigating Ma Chao to oppose the Emperor, is ultimately because his father is Liu Yan. What kind of idea Liu Yan had, Liu Fan was very clear about it. He stayed in the court mainly to observe the dynamics of the imperial court up close and serve as a spy for his father. If there were any movements in the imperial court, he could also quickly send news back to his own father.

  Today, this situation is a signal to Liu Fan: the new emperor cannot tolerate others dominating outside and is quite jealous. If he catches someone red-handed, he will definitely take drastic measures. Looking at it this way, his father's situation is very dangerous!

  One worry arose, and even this round of controversy in the imperial court was no longer on his mind.

  Just as he was worried about his father, Liu Xuan had already announced the list of promotions he had prepared. Everyone listened and generally recognized it, so in just one meal, Liu Xuan's court finally had a complete framework.

  Apart from the Emperor, the highest position was held by Taifu Yuan Wei.

  However, Yuan Wei is not comfortable in this position now. Although his status is extremely high and he can put forward his own opinions on major military and political affairs to the emperor, basically Liu Xuan does not ask him for anything, which is equivalent to being a decoration.

  The three dukes are now the three gong, but the three gong have also been greatly weakened in reality. Zhang Wen, the Minister of Works, Wang Yun, the Minister of Education, and Yang Bing, the Grand Commandant, can only occasionally offer suggestions that are adopted by the Emperor. Even Yang Bing, who should be in charge of all the troops of the Han Dynasty, cannot command a single soldier. This shows the awkward situation of the three gong in the court.

  Three public offices went down, originally should be nine ministers, but after Liu Xuan established the six departments, the status of the six departments was above the nine ministers. Now, after so long a time of development, the six departments have finally been completed.

  The six Ministers of the Six Ministries are: Minister of Rites Cai Yong; Minister of Personnel Xun Yu; Minister of War Huangfu Song; Minister of Revenue Xun You; Minister of Justice Zhao Qi; Minister of Works Ma Rong.

  Xun Yu has been working in the Ministry of Revenue, and this time he was also promoted to Shangshu. Nobody can say anything about it. Xun You's promotion may have surprised many people, but it is not surprising after all. As Xun You has always been by the emperor's side, his reuse is only a matter of time. Moreover, Xun You is a member of the Xun family, and the courtiers still give some face to Xun Shuang. Therefore, neither of their promotions was met with any objections.

  Liu Xuan also knew that he couldn't do this, having previously killed Ma Zhi and then promoted his own two confidants. If things continued like this, the group of old ministers would all resign in protest, which wouldn't be good. Therefore, he also gave them some appropriate consolation, such as promoting Zheng Tai to take over as Left Shilang of the Ministry of Revenue.

  For example, when Fu Wan was promoted to the position of Ting Wei, in charge of the Temple of Ting Wei (the Supreme Court), and added to the remaining people among the nine nobles, basically all were old ministers in the court: Taichang Qi Xuanfu, Guanglu Xun Lu Zhi, Taipu Qi Lu Qiong, Dahonglü Zhou Quan, Zongzheng Qi Liu Ai, Shaofu Zhu Jun, and Dasi Nong Liu Yu didn't need to be mentioned. Weiwei Huangfu Shoujian was the son of Huangfu Song, so he could also be considered "one of us". Therefore, the old ministers did not say anything.

  However, Liu Xuan surprisingly abolished the Zhongwei Temple, which shocked many people and some even expressed opposition.

  But Liu Xuan also had an excuse: "The Zhongwei Temple has the tasks of patrolling the capital, managing the armory and preventing fires. However, these matters overlap with the jurisdictions of other departments, so it is really useless to set up another temple alone, so the Zhongwei Temple was abolished."

  The Zhongwei Temple was abolished, which means that the position of Executive Gold Guard was also abolished. Many people who were eyeing this position couldn't help but feel a bit depressed. However, Liu Xuan soon accepted one of Wang Yun's suggestions and immediately placated the crowd, so no one said anything.

  Wang Yun recommended one person: he recommended Sima Fang, and Liu Xuan followed suit by appointing Sima Fang as the Governor of Jingzhao. At the same time, since the position of Governor of Jingzhao had been vacant for a long time, after Sima Fang took office, he needed to re-establish his staff, which meant that many new positions were created at once. The officials naturally wouldn't say anything else, and even if the Temple of the Middle Guard was abolished, it didn't matter.

  In addition, the Sima family was also a powerful clan. Although they had declined somewhat in recent years, their connections were still intact. Wang Yun felt that as fellow members of the aristocracy, they were people he could rely on, so he had always been trying to recommend them to the Emperor. However, previously recommended individuals had not been reused by the Emperor, and unexpectedly this time the Emperor gave him some face.

  He didn't know that Liu Xuan would agree, it was completely because Sima Fang had a son who made him worry, but as a result, he shut the mouths of Wang Yun and others. After this reshuffle, the new and old forces in the court also gained something, and everyone felt satisfied.

  The most satisfied is Liu Xuan, he finally set up his own team, although it's not perfect yet, there are still many problems that make him headache, but as long as he slowly eliminates those disobedient old men and replaces them with people he trusts, he will eventually get a court that satisfies him the most.

  Just as he had determined the framework of the imperial court and formally appointed the taishou of Yongliang in various places, he finally felt that the dragon energy in the sky above the Yongliang region gathered together, slowly evolving into a giant dragon guarding this area.

  At the same time, a faint, subtle sound also came from the dragon egg in his body. Liu Xuan immediately realized that his Heavenly Dragon Qi had finally broken through after thoroughly grasping the northwest.

  Today I repaid the debt of the second update... Finally managed to repay it, today I finished repaying two chapters, still owe everyone two chapters, strive to finish repaying before the end of this month.

  In addition, this chapter is also the last chapter of the first volume. The next chapter will be a new volume: Han's Jiangshan! I hope you all continue to support it.