Chapter 67: Everything is Ready

  Zhu Jun's proposal did not encounter any opposition, although it was actually none of his business to intervene, but Liu Xuan thought of another point.

  At this time, Liu Bei was just the prefect of Pingyuan County.

  That is his currently recognized identity in the imperial court, just a county magistrate, and still an intern county magistrate.

  The "Shou" in Shoupingyuan County Magistrate does not mean to guard the Pingyuan or anything like that. In the Han Dynasty, when appointing officials, if a character was added before the official title, it meant that this person was unofficial. Whether or not they could remove the "Shou" and become the actual official was still up for debate.

  In the imperial court, it is rare for the nine ministers to have such a situation. Those who can be promoted to the nine ministers are naturally the top people in the court, either with outstanding knowledge or great reputation. In any case, the emperor will not add a "trainee" title to their name.

  This situation often occurs in deputy positions of various departments or those who actually get things done, and Liu Bei as the county magistrate is among them, which is why such a situation occurred.

  As for this point, Liu Xuan was previously unclear, but when he really came into contact with the Han Dynasty's official system, he felt that Liu Bei's promotion was too fast.

  Look at him, when he first took office as the county lieutenant of Anxi, this county lieutenant was not the highest official in the local area, but a security officer in charge of capturing bandits and driving out wandering robbers. It is considered one of the assistants to the local county magistrate or county order.

  He later became the magistrate of Pingyuan County - it should be known that magistrates are high-ranking officials set up in large counties, and many prefectures and states also have such large counties as their administrative seats.

  From this, it can be known that the position of Pingyuan County Magistrate is not a low-ranking official, but Liu Xuan was used to comparing Liu Bei with other princes and felt that this humble county magistrate was too small.

  All I can say is that Liu Bei started too low and too late.

  In this case, directly promoting Liu Bei to Zhong Hu Jun would inevitably lead to some annoying voices in the court, but if Liu Bei were to acknowledge his ancestors and return to his roots, it would be different.

  Liu Bei directly became a member of the imperial family, which is a royal person. The Son of Heaven using his own people is a matter of course, let alone a Zhonghu Jun, directly granting an important position equivalent to one of the Nine Ministers, and all civil and military officials in the court would have nothing to say, and even think that it should be so - this is one of the advantages of the feudal imperial system.

  So, the next morning, Liu Xuan called Zong Zhengqing Liu Ai to prepare the genealogy. Then, he declared Liu Bei to ascend to the hall, and in front of all the civil and military officials, he checked the genealogy, and after reading it for a long time, he finally confirmed Liu Bei's identity - this was just a formality, and the specific matter had already been settled last night.

  Otherwise, it would take a whole court of civil and military officials to examine the ancestral records, and who knows how long it would take to find out that Liu Sheng had over a hundred sons, one by one.

  Besides, the Liu Bei branch had long been lost outside, and it was not a reliable thing to find Liu Bei's identity just by relying on the imperial court's internal records. In the end, they could only try to find a relatively suitable one. The genealogy of the Liu Bei branch was directly continued upwards, which is the final version heard by all the civil and military officials in the court.

  In the end, Liu Bei was still Liu Xuan's uncle, which was also an impossible situation. At this time, Liu Bei's age was also over thirty, and their family tree had been pushed back and forth, also making him one generation older than Liu Xuan. It wouldn't be good to add another stroke on top of that, would it?

  What's more important is that the identity of the imperial uncle is better than that of a peer - peers competing with each other can be even more brutal than those of different generations, Liu Bei now has this identity as an imperial uncle, and everyone in the world is watching him. If he still does something to betray the court, his reputation will immediately become notorious, and for the rest of his life, he won't be able to turn over a new leaf.

  Unless Liu Bei's brain goes haywire, he definitely won't do something like this.

  However, now that Liu Bei's status is confirmed, Liu Xuan readily appointed Liu Bei as the Central Protector of the Army and Marquis of Yicheng Village, then met him with the courtesy due to an uncle and nephew, and finally invited Liu Bei to take his place in court above Huang Zhu.

  Huang Wan was originally the Colonel of the Capital, a position that was quite impressive and even in the imperial court, the three dukes were extremely wary of those who sat in this position.

  Because the Colonel of the Garrison, apart from having troops at his disposal, was also responsible for investigating various situations in the capital region, including secretly spying on some secret matters and impeaching senior officials.

  Its power was somewhat similar to that of the Eastern Depot and the Embroidered Uniform Guard in the Ming dynasty, but its power was even greater than those two institutions. It also had some similarities with the Cishi, except that the Cishi were outside, while the Sili Xuewei sat in the imperial court. At the same time, it was more powerful than the Cishi, as it had a contingent of 2,000 troops directly supported by the imperial court.

  From this point, it can be known that the power of the regional inspector is heavy, gathering intelligence, commanding troops, supervising officials and monitoring the people, as well as participating in impeachment powers.

  But this situation changed when Liu Xuan reorganized the army - the Colonel of the City Gates, Huangfu Song, was trapped in Luoyang by Dong Zhuo and had no troops under his command.

  Having arrived in Chang'an, he thought that he could reorganize the originally stipulated troops, but unexpectedly an imperial edict came down, directly incorporating them into the Imperial Guards, and the military power that should have belonged to the Colonel of the City Gates was also stripped away.

  And the final ownership of this army belonged to the Zhonghu Jun - from then on, Liu Xuan elevated the status of the Zhonghu Jun above that of the Sili Xuewei, stripping the Sili Xuewei of its command over the troops, which directly weakened Huang Wan's power.

  In Huang Wan's eyes, Liu Bei was just a peach picker - unfortunately, this person had a familial relationship with him. Although Huang Wan felt depressed, he couldn't say anything. When Liu Bei came over, he still had to follow the rules and pay his respects. Watching Liu Bei take a seat in the solitary chair above his own, he felt even more displeased.

  He didn't know that Liu Xuan even wanted to abolish the position of Colonel, no other reason, this position was too powerful, for now, he would divide its power and wait until it couldn't be divided anymore, then he could abolish it.

  What's more, the things that the Colonel of the Capital Gendarmerie is responsible for are too numerous and miscellaneous. Letting one person be in charge doesn't have any efficiency, it would be better to divide them up clearly. For example, the investigation of various matters in the capital area should be handed over to the Intelligence Division of the Ministry of War, while civil affairs should go through regular channels. What kind of situation is this now?

  Liu Bei's matter would not be so easily settled, but for now it was not the time to discuss with Liu Bei. After granting Liu Bei the title of Zhonghu Jun and Marquis, he directly began today's morning court session as usual.

  It was already late autumn, approaching winter. This year, due to Liu Xuan's policies and the secretly laid-out talismans, most of the fields in the capital area produced enough grain, and a small portion of good land had a bumper harvest. With abundant food, the courtiers were also very happy.

  Grain has always been the foundation of survival, and with the previous emperor's mismanagement causing the currency system to collapse, grain is now the hard currency of the time. Moreover, only when there is sufficient grain can soldiers be willing to fight to the death.

  Listening to Xun Yu's continuous report on this year's grain and population situation, Liu Xuan's mouth also curved up unconsciously.

  However, what he is most concerned about is that after deducting the grain used for food and seed, how much military grain will be left over next year?

  Xun Yu had already done his homework on these matters, and when Liu Xuan asked him, he immediately replied: "With the current number of troops in the imperial court's army, it is enough to support a year of warfare."

  The various officials in the court all smiled slightly upon hearing this number, and Wang Yun even narrowed his eyes and nodded lightly, apparently they were all very satisfied with this situation.

  Liu Xuan originally thought it was a bit less, but thinking that the army would go out to fight and the common people would still stay at home farming, when this batch of grain was almost eaten up, the next batch of grain would also be harvested, so he didn't say anything.

  But looking at these old men one by one, they all smiled and seemed to have made great achievements in the past year, which was a bit strange: "This is just a year's savings, is it a lot?"

  It was Zhang Rang who saw the emperor's confusion and immediately understood what the young emperor was thinking. He leaned forward and said in a low voice, "Your Majesty doesn't know that this year's stored grain is not all the food, but only military rations. That is to say, the expenses of the court and the people are not included in this batch of grain. It can still support the army for one year, which is already a considerable amount."

  Liu Xuan suddenly realized what was going on, it turned out to be like this!

  Moreover, what the Chinese military attaches most importance to is that these military provisions are completely collected from the people under their rule, rather than being grown by their own soldiers as in the past.

  Thinking of this, it's unbearable to know that even the most elite border troops have to select a portion of soldiers to farm and supplement their military rations; otherwise, relying solely on requisitioned supplies would be insufficient.

  "So it was!"

  If calculated this way, the annual grain output is a rather large number. Liu Xuan thought for a moment and immediately asked: "Are there many barren lands in the Jingzhao area now?"

  Xun Yu immediately understood the emperor's intention and reported with his hands clasped: "Your minister is still recruiting refugees to open up wasteland, but since Dong's banditry has ceased and Kong Wenju has taken office as Governor of Henan, the situation in the east has gradually returned to calm, so there are not as many refugees as at the beginning of the year."

  Liu Xuan nodded and knew he couldn't be too greedy either, so he asked about other things.

  Ma Jie reported the progress of the manufacture of military equipment, and heard that the equipment was ready, but it was difficult to find war horses. Liu Xuan didn't think much of it: "After getting rid of Guo Si and Li Jue, this matter of war horses will naturally be resolved."

  War horses are hard to find, the key is that the northwest road is blocked, as long as it is opened up, the problem of war horses will naturally no longer be a problem. At that time, whether it is the local horse from the northwest, the Xiongnu horse from the north, or the fine steed from the Western Regions, they can be chosen by Liu Xuan's generals at will.

  But Liu Xuan should indeed consider whether he should cultivate some strange beasts. Although he didn't catch one to be his mount in the past, he did collect things like their blood cells, which were stored in a space within his Yuan Shen due to not taking up much room.

  "It's a pity that my current cultivation is insufficient, at least I need to cultivate to the Golden Dragon level before I can take out the things inside."

  At that time, the powerful generals under his command were either Qilin or Xuanwu Fenghuang, and it's estimated that they would scare to death those who dared to oppose him.