Volume 1 I Want to Be an Emperor Chapter 59 How to Reward?

  Dong Zhuo died, and his death was without warning, extremely sudden.

  When Chang'an received the news, the Guandong Allied Army had already broken through the Hulao Pass and was pressing straight to Luoyang City. The courtiers heard this news, some were delighted, some were worried, and some didn't care much.

  Those who are delighted are some people who think that the Kwantung Army is still a court army and will still obey the imperial court. Liu Xuan even suspects that these people have become officials and stupid, thinking that they will only rely on that empty name to obey the imperial court's dispatch?

  The worriers, naturally see the current situation - with soldiers and food comes power. These people worry that the Guandong coalition army will rush to Chang'an like a swarm of bees, and then reenact the play of Dong Zhuo leading his troops into the capital, holding the emperor hostage and ordering the vassals. That would be absolutely no good for the courtiers, nor would it bring any benefit to the Han dynasty's rule.

  Although the emperor has begun to reclaim power, in fact, for most of them, there is not much impact. On the contrary, due to the reform of the six departments, many officials have the possibility of promotion. Only a few people who really hold great power, such as the three dukes and nine ministers, are truly affected.

  However, at present the imperial court is in a situation where it needs to use people, so the emperor will still use them. Therefore, their power may be weakened at most, but they will not lose it, so everyone is still relatively satisfied with the current situation.

  If those guys rush into the capital, I reckon they won't have any rights left.

  Those who are not very concerned, however, are a group of people led by Emperor Liu Xuan. This group includes Lü Bu, Cao Cao, Zhu Jun, and Huangfu Song. These individuals are currently the imperial party in the court, holding great power and having troops at their disposal. Logically speaking, with the allied army pressing in on Luoyang, they should be the most anxious, but for some reason, they all seem rather uninterested at the moment?

  They didn't know that Lü Bu didn't care about these things. If the Guandong Coalition Army didn't know what was good for them and wanted to attack Tongguan, Lü Bu wouldn't mind leading his troops over to teach them a lesson. In fact, this Lord Lü Wenhou didn't think much of the so-called Guandong Coalition Army; he even thought that if he were still under Dong Zhuo's command, he would have already taken care of this group of people.

  Cao Cao didn't care, because he knew that the coalition forces of the East would not come to attack Chang'an unless they were brain-dead - after all, Chang'an was different from Luoyang, and Luoyang could still be considered a neighboring province to the Eastern provinces, but Chang'an was in the Western region. From the East to the West wasn't just a matter of one or two steps, those people had to consume how much grain and fodder?

  Besides, Chang'an has the Tong Pass natural barrier. These people couldn't even bear to shed blood when they attacked Hu Lao, and in the end it was only because of a rebellion by Dong Zhuo's generals that they were able to occupy the pass. How long will they be able to hold out at Tong Pass?

  More importantly, overthrowing Dong Zhuo can be said to be eliminating a national scourge, so what about leading troops to attack the capital? Are you not afraid of provoking attacks from other lords?

  Now all the vassals have troops in their hands, and they are staring at each other with a fierce gaze. What's lacking is just an excuse. To lead soldiers to attack the capital is tantamount to rebellion. Isn't this like going out of one's way to give others a reason?

  So Cao Cao didn't worry at all that those guys would rush to Chang'an, and even if they really came, they wouldn't have the ability to take down Tongguan.

  As for Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun, their way of thinking was very simple. If the allied army dispersed at this point, it would be fine. If there were any treasonous intentions, they wouldn't mind coming back a few more times to quell the rebellion.

  So these few are the most calm, but in comparison, Liu Xuan has more headaches.

  He didn't think the Kwantung Army would continue to advance westward, and he was even skeptical about whether Luoyang could be taken down. Now that the Kwantung Army has made achievements in suppressing bandits, how can they be rewarded?

  After some thought, among these princes and some background, only Liu Yu, the governor of Youzhou, and Kong Rong, the governor of Beihai, can enter the court to take office. The rest are not suitable for recruitment into the imperial court, and it is best to continue staying outside.

  As for Yuan Shao's official position, it was easy to resolve. At present, he was only the governor of Beihai, and Liu Xuan planned to give him the title of Governor of Jizhou. Later, when Yuan Shao really controlled Jizhou, he would add the title of Shepherd of Jizhou. Let Yuan Shao become a vassal who is independent in both name and reality.

  Logically speaking, the emperor should have tried his best to avoid such a situation, but Liu Xuan had been plotting for this kind of situation all along, so he was still preparing to make the separatist situation even more severe.

  Youzhou, because he was preparing to bring back Liu Yu, the governor of Youzhou. He planned to appoint Gongsun Zan as the Governor of Youzhou, and since he had been operating in Beiping for many years, with this title, it is estimated that he would immediately be able to control the entire Youzhou.

  In fact, the inspector is not a local official. The so-called inspector is only an envoy who inspects the state and county on behalf of the imperial court to investigate official affairs, and is not a direct superior.

  It's just that by this time, many things have changed in flavor. For example, Ma Teng, as the governor of Xiliang, controls the power of Liangzhou, and no one says anything about it?

  Giving Gongsun Zan such a title is just an excuse for him to control Youzhou. In fact, even without this title, most of Youzhou was already under Gongsun Zan's control. Liu Yu, the governor of Youzhou, nominally controlled the entire province, but Beiping and surrounding counties were not under his control. Moreover, the best troops in Youzhou were all under Gongsun Zan's command, with the most famous being the White Horse Volunteers under his banner.

  With Liu Yu's death, Gongsun Zan immediately became the de facto ruler of You Province. If he waited a little longer, even if Emperor Xian did not appoint him as the provincial governor, he would probably have taken the position for himself anyway.

  By then, You and Ji provinces were adjacent to each other, with no other forces surrounding them. The great war between Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shao was almost inevitable.

  He himself brought Kong Rong into the court, and there was no one in Qingzhou who could mediate and smooth things over. Cao Cao, who should have been based in Qingzhou and Yanzhou, was instead brought to the northwest by himself. It seems that the great war between Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shao may break out earlier than he expected.

  Thinking of this, Liu Xuan couldn't help but rub his chin: "In that case, it seems that there are no strong players in the Central Plains area. Perhaps if one is not careful, they will be taken advantage of by those three brothers?"

  This cannot happen, Liu Xuan immediately let Cao Gao go and summon Lu Zhi, he wanted to use Lu Zhi to call those people into the court, and control them nearby.

  Cao Guo soon found Lu Zhi, who had been spending most of his time at the Imperial Guard's training grounds due to the recent reorganization of the imperial army. Upon hearing that the Emperor had summoned him, he was surprised but quickly composed himself and followed Cao Guo into the palace.

  All the way, I couldn't help but wonder what the emperor wanted with me.

  It's not surprising, since Liu Xuan ascended to the throne as emperor, although he also made good use of Lu Zhi, the relationship between the monarch and his subject was not very good. Whenever there were things to discuss, they would often be talked about in court meetings, but rarely had private conversations.

  Lu Zhi himself knew that the emperor was not fond of him, and it all boiled down to when he had pursued and killed Zhang Rang, Liu Xuan had protected Zhang Rang, and Lu Zhi had shown great dissatisfaction, which had displeased the emperor. However, he never thought he had done anything wrong, and if the emperor removed his official position because he was not pleased with him, he would have nothing to say.

  However, what was unexpected for him was that after Liu Xuan ascended to the throne, although he didn't have a good expression towards him, on major issues, he didn't have any disagreements with him. Whatever needed to be done was done, and it could even be said that he was heavily relied upon - wasn't the reorganization of the Imperial Guards an important matter? Just looking at the few people the Emperor entrusted with this task would reveal how much the new Emperor valued him.

  This major event requires personal participation, it can be seen that the emperor attaches great importance to him. Because of this matter, Lu Zhi was also classified as a member of the imperial party by some old ministers in the court. At that time, when Lu Zhi learned about this, he couldn't help but cry and laugh, really wanting to shout: Unjust!

  In this matter, the new emperor can be called a "wise ruler", at least he won't appoint officials based on personal preferences, which is not something ordinary emperors can do.

  Thinking of this, Lu Zhi stopped making random guesses in his mind. He estimated that the Emperor had summoned him for an official matter, which was quite important, but not suitable to be discussed during court meetings, otherwise there would have been no need to specifically summon him.

  Entering the Xuan Shi, this imperial bedroom has been renovated, but it still can't hide the feeling of decay. After all, I just entered Chang'an not long ago, and Xuan Shi was one of the first to be cleaned up. At that time, I just wanted to move in as soon as possible, so naturally, it couldn't be repaired like new.

  The emperor has been living here for several months, but he hasn't shown the slightest dissatisfaction, it can be seen that this young emperor is not a person who is overly indulgent in pleasure - thinking of this, I couldn't help but think of the rumors circulating in Chang'an City recently, and thought to myself: "If Your Majesty could restrain yourself from women's charms even more, it would be even better."

  But then I thought about it and suddenly realized that the emperor, apart from taking Cai Yong's daughter as his empress and asking Wang Yun for a songstress, did not select any other women to enter the palace. In fact, most of the palace maids were brought from Luoyang, and later those who were recruited were also taken care of by officials themselves before being sent into the palace, rather than by imperial decree.

  Looking at it this way, the emperor doesn't have much to show for himself in this regard either. It's likely that many high-ranking officials in the imperial court can't do any better. Lu Zhi couldn't help but feel stunned: "Could he really be a rare wise and enlightened ruler?"

  Cao Man thought to himself that he had already arrived outside the palace, and not long after Cao Yun went to inform the Emperor, a eunuch came out to summon him in. After performing the proper rituals and taking his seat, Lu Zhi directly asked: "Your Majesty has summoned me, I don't know what this is about?"

  He never thought that Liu Xuan's question would be: "I don't know what you think of Liu Bei, Liu Xuande as a person?"

  "Liu Bei?" Lu Zhi didn't expect the emperor to ask him about that student, and suddenly remembered this wasn't the first time the emperor had asked him about Liu Bei.

  To be honest, he didn't have a very good impression of this student. If there was any good impression at all, it was that when he led the army to quell the Yellow Turban Rebellion, this student brought several hundred militiamen to help him fight and performed quite well.

  Just as Zheng was thinking of how to respond, Liu Xuan said: "I want to recruit this person to come to the capital to take office, what do you think?"

  Delayed and delayed...