Volume 1 I Want to Be an Emperor Chapter 64 Luoyang Magistrate

  Liu Bei glanced at Guan Yu, and in fact, there was a clear answer to this question: "The teacher's book says that it is suitable to bring some good warriors, after all, the court is now in a period of using people."

  Lu Zhi once mentioned in a letter to Liu Bei that he could bring some of his elite soldiers into the capital, although Liu Bei's troops were not regular army soldiers. Since the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Liu Bei had been recruiting local brave warriors, and after several years, there must be a batch of skilled fighters among them. With a little training, they would become an elite force, so it was a pity to abandon them. Therefore, Lu Zhi asked him to bring them into the capital together.

  As for whether Liu Bei will gain more power and control over these troops... don't be ridiculous, how many elite soldiers can Liu Bei's camp possibly have? Although the imperial court also doesn't have many troops, it's a matter of comparison with whom. Perhaps in the northwest region, Li Jue, Guo Si, Ma Teng, and Han Sui all have large numbers of troops, far surpassing the imperial court's military strength.

  Compared with Liu Bei's humble Plain Commandery, this is much stronger.

  After listening to Liu Bei's detailed explanation, Guan Yu thought for a moment and suggested: "The soldiers in the army have many old soldiers who have followed Big Brother for several years. These are all elite troops, it would be a pity to abandon them. If they were sent to others, Big Brother's efforts over the past few years would be destroyed overnight. Since there is something to entrust, why not just take the elite and leave?"

  Guan Yu also saw the situation, so he made a suggestion. After Liu Bei nodded in agreement, he called Guan Yu and Jian Yong to select the best soldiers from the army, then gather their weapons and equip these selected elite troops properly before leading them into the capital.

  After being busy for several days, they selected more than 200 elite soldiers, and Zhang Fei chose some strong ones to make up a total of 300. Everyone wore picked leather armor, held new blades, and went to that one battle with some truly elite soldierly spirit.

  Guan Yu selected 50 of the most elite soldiers, each equipped with a ring-shaped knife, to serve as Liu Bei's personal bodyguards. At that time, it was customary for officials to bring some guards when entering the capital to take office, so these 50 men were not only the best warriors but also had the finest weapons.

  After making such preparations, summer had already gone, and at this time, the Allied Forces had been without any achievements for a long time, and there were already signs of internal chaos. Liu Bei saw that he was even more unwilling to stay for a long time, and after handing over all the remaining soldiers and horses to Gongsun Zan, he led three hundred elite troops and his own brothers and Jian Yong to flee west to Chang'an.

  At that time, Gongsun Zan heard that Liu Bei had received a summons from the imperial court and also wished Liu Bei a smooth journey. He sent dozens of fine horses, new military equipment, and some grain, and then bid farewell to Liu Bei. Afterwards, he began to think about what meaning there was in staying here.

  After Liu Bei set out, he first sent Jian Yong to take a letter and hurry to Chang'an on a fast horse. He himself led his men in a slow march behind him. He estimated that they would arrive in Chang'an by autumn. As for what situation they would encounter after arriving in Chang'an, he was quite worried. However, he felt that this trip to Chang'an would certainly bring many benefits. If they could gain recognition from the Han imperial court, then this trip to the capital would not be in vain.

  He didn't know that soon after he left, Luoyang City erupted in another internal conflict. After Dong Zhuo's death, his subordinates became divided into factions, each controlling their own troops and refusing to submit to one another. On this day, a small incident triggered a clash, resulting in a chaotic battle within the city walls. Some people took advantage of the chaos to commit heinous crimes, leaving Luoyang City in utter disarray. There were looters, arsonists, those seeking revenge, and others who forcibly abducted women. If Sun Jian hadn't taken advantage of the situation to attack the city, no one knows what would have become of Luoyang in the end.

  Luoyang city was broken, the remaining forces of Dong Zhuo in the city finally came to their senses and scattered and fled, but were killed by the allied army outside, with only a few escaping, most of whom hid in the mountains and forests.

  Of course, there were also small groups of people such as Xu Rong and Fan Chou who escaped with their troops. It seemed that they wanted to go south to find Zhang Ji. These two men were very brave and had elite soldiers. When the allied army saw that Luoyang was about to fall, they all rushed to enter the city and did not want to fight to the death with them. In the end, they still managed to kill their way out and escape.

  When the news arrived in Chang'an, Liu Bei had not yet arrived. Liu Xuan looked at the memorial in his hand and knew that Sun Jian would soon find the imperial jade seal, followed by a great war between him and Liu Biao of Jingzhou.

  "Hmm? The power of Jingzhou is deeply rooted, why not borrow from the Sun family to eliminate it?"

  After some thought, it's better not to care about Sun Jian. Anyway, this trip south will definitely lead to a conflict between Sun Jian and Liu Biao, and the two families will become sworn enemies. Only then will the Sun family constantly fight against Liu Biao in Jingzhou, consuming the elite talents of the Jingzhou aristocracy through endless battles.

  Take advantage of its weakness and wipe it out in one fell swoop - what about the occupation of Jingzhou by the Sun family? Liu Xuan doesn't care, at worst he can just fight back. What he fears is that if he doesn't give up all the places and only controls the area around Chang'an.

  Thinking of this, Liu Xuan no longer paid attention to the matters of the Allied Army. What made him concerned was that after the Allied Army took down Luoyang, the imperial palace in Luyi City had been thoroughly devastated. During this period, those guys took turns ravaging the Luoyang Imperial Palace, and at the time of the city's fall, it was unknown which guy thought of using fire to burn the imperial palace to create chaos and escape.

  It turned out that this method was indeed effective, and after the Allied forces entered the city, they were busy putting out the fire in the imperial palace, and there were not many people chasing and killing these fleeing defeated soldiers.

  However, the palace was ultimately not preserved, but compared to the entire Luoyang city being reduced to ashes in history, the current situation is still much stronger.

  Yuan Shao's army entered the city, and together with Gongsun Zan, they were busy issuing proclamations to pacify the people, while also having soldiers clean up the chaotic areas of the city. At the same time, those who took advantage of the chaos to commit evil deeds were caught and punished according to the law. After more than ten days of hard work, Luoyang finally returned to calm.

  However, this raises another troublesome issue... Luoyang is now unmanaged, the imperial court must appoint an official to take charge.

  The Allied Forces themselves did not dare to delay this matter, and immediately petitioned the imperial court to appoint a governor of Luoyang. At the same time, many people also petitioned for official positions related to Luoyang, but what was most important was that several petitions requested the emperor to return to Luoyang.

  The reason is also very sufficient, only to say that the national thief Dong Zhuo has died, and the remaining party has been wiped out. The emperor's move to Chang'an was originally to avoid disaster, now that the disaster has been eliminated, it should be returned to Luoyang to govern the world - as for the problem of the imperial palace, they didn't mention a single word, just like nothing happened.

  At dawn, Liu Xuan ordered the attendant historian to read out these memorials one by one. Before half of them were finished, the faces of all the civil and military officials present did not look so good.

  This group of people, on the surface, clearly have no good intentions. Especially those who urged the Emperor to move the capital to Luoyang are all from Luoyang, and not one of them fails to beg for official positions in the memorial - they all want official positions within the city of Luoyang.

  These two things seem unrelated, but they are actually closely connected. The official titles these people want are not high, and some are even lower than their current positions, so why do they still want them? It's just that they want to emulate Dong Zhuo and He Jin, controlling the military power and dominating the imperial court.

  If Luoyang were to become the capital, these people would be able to rise several ranks even with lower official positions, and with troops in their hands, achieving great things would naturally not be a problem.

  Which of the Chinese martial arts is stupid? No one would agree to swap. Especially thinking that the purpose of these guys is to ride on their own heads and make a fuss, the faces of the officials in the court are getting uglier.

  Liu Xuan saw that the group of people didn't look too good, so he thought his goal was achieved and waved his hand: "No need to read anymore, how do you gentlemen think this matter should be decided?"

  This remark was naturally asking for the opinions of the Chinese scholars and martial artists, but as everyone looked at each other, they found that there really wasn't any good idea.

  How could that be? At present, the Emperor is in Chang'an governing the people and training soldiers, seemingly preparing to do something big. How can he bring a large group of people back to Luoyang before finishing what he started?

  Moreover, nowadays the imperial court's power is limited and there are not many soldiers and horses. We can only take one side first and then take another side. If we go to Luoyang, won't we be attacked on both sides?

  Although the ministers of this dynasty were all scholars, they were not unaware of military affairs. For so many days, they had already guessed the emperor's general plan. From various plans and strategies, it was clear that the emperor would first occupy Yongliang, then use Guanzhong as a base to counterattack Guandong, and finally sweep across the country to restore the orthodox Jiangshan.

  Many civil and military officials saw this point, and they didn't have much objection to settling in Chang'an. After all, Chang'an was the capital of the Han dynasty from every aspect, so it wasn't necessary to run back to a ruined Luoyang.

  "It's not quite right to bring up this matter at this time, Your Majesty may choose to ignore it."

  In the end, Sito Wang Yun agreed with Liu Xuan's words. He could see the pros and cons of it, and since he was also the most prestigious person in the court at that time, he naturally had to speak first.

  As soon as this was said, Taishi Yang Bi, Sili Xuewei Huang Wan, and Sikong Zhang Wen all responded in succession. However, Liu Xuan noticed that Taifu Yuan Wei remained silent, presumably because there were two of his clansmen in the allied army, so he had no choice but to pretend to be mute.

  "It's still not going well, for now, let's discuss who can be the Magistrate of Luoyang?"

  In the Han dynasty system, a county with a population of over 10,000 households had a magistrate, while those with fewer than 10,000 households had a chief.

  For example, Liu Bei is now the guardian of Pingyuan County, which means that Liu Bei governs a large county with more than 10,000 households. This rank is even higher than that of a county magistrate. Although Luoyang is the capital city, the head of the city is only the Magistrate of Luoyang. However, due to its special circumstances, the Magistrate of Luoyang is even more powerful than the magistrates of ordinary large counties - he can enter the imperial court for discussion and report directly to the emperor.

  This is where the uniqueness of Luoyang comes in, and this is also one of the reasons why some people want to get their hands on Luoyang - but the problem is that if the imperial court is not in Luoyang, then Luoyang will be somewhat useless, at most it will have a higher status, but in reality, it will still be subject to the Henan governor.

  There are so many complicated joints, plus the extremely sensitive location of Luoyang, and who will take on this task has really racked the brains of all the civil and military officials in the court. After discussion after discussion, only two candidates were finally produced.

  "Hebei Governor Han Fu and Beihai Taishou Kong Rong can serve as Luoyang Magistrate." However, if these two were to take the post of Luoyang Magistrate, it would seem a bit out of place, equivalent to demotion. Finally, Yuan Wei suggested: "Since the capital is fixed in Chang'an, why not abolish the post of Henan Governor and re-establish the post of Henan Taishou? Why not appoint Kong Wenju to govern Luoyang?"