Wait, please don't call me Emperor Zhaolie

Chapter 376: Enough to Shake the Mountains
When Liu Bei's army was stationed in Gaoling, Guo Jia left his military duties and rushed to the rear to ask for an audience with the King of Han. He bowed and saluted as soon as he met him, and said anxiously: "Your Majesty has come from afar to recover Guanzhong and help the world. Now the Liangzhou bandits are fleeing westwards. Our army has not fought with the enemy and has pursued them all the way to Chang'an City."

"Therefore, Your Majesty should pay homage to Changling before entering Chang'an, otherwise you may lose your reputation."

After hearing this, Liu Bei couldn't help but smile and pointed with his finger and said, "Feng Xiao and I think the same. I have sent people to clean up Changling, Baling, Yangling, Maoling, Pingling, Duling, Weiling, and Anling."

"While comforting the people in various places, he cleaned up the Han Dynasty mausoleum and sent 300 cavalrymen across the Wei River to Chang'an to see if there were any bold Liangzhou bandits who had not yet left, and to see if there were any family members of the ministers left in the city..."

In fact, without Guo Jia's reminder, how could Liu Bei not know the importance of paying homage to the tombs of previous emperors before entering Chang'an.

Even if he was leading his army passing by, he would first visit these places. The Han Dynasty attached great importance to ancestral tombs and ancestral temples. Other relatives of the Han royal family might not be able to go there, but he, Liu Bei, must go.

"Your Majesty, this is very good."

Guo Jia was relieved when he heard this. Although this had been mentioned before, the troops were advancing too fast at this moment. He was afraid that the King of Han would forget about it for a moment and lead his troops directly into Chang'an, and then turn back to pay homage to Changling, which would mean a big mistake.

Liu Bei looked at the Guanzhong area in a corner of the map and thought: "The Han army has entered Guanzhong now. I wonder if Zilong has led his troops out of Hanzhong through the Baoxiadao Road to attack the three cities of Chencang, Meixian, and Yongxian to contain Han Sui, Ma Teng and others."

Ma Teng was fine, but Han Sui was a habitual rebel against the Han Dynasty. He often led the Qiang and Hu people to wreak havoc in Liang Province and Guanzhong. I'm afraid he would not surrender easily.

What's more, Guanzhong, Yong and Liang have been at war for many years, with many bandits, the powerful and arrogant, and the Qiang and Hu people are also bloodthirsty. If the three are mixed together, it would easily provoke hundreds of thousands of people to rebel.

It seems that to govern this place, one needs to strike swiftly and with the force of thunder, like swinging a hammer. First, one should attack in a coordinated manner to smash the local princes, Qiang and Hu tribes, bandits and others who despise the Han Dynasty into pieces. When they are afraid, one can then cast a net and show mercy to them, by registering the Qiang and Hu as citizens.

The corrupt situation in the northwest of the Han Dynasty would probably be impossible to clean up without spending more than ten years, or even twenty or thirty years.

Only in this way can the continuous invasions of the Hu people be pushed northward to the Great Wall area, giving the people inside the Great Wall another hundred years of stable life.

As Liu Bei thought about it, he looked towards the northwest of the Han map, then turned to the right and saw several counties of Bingzhou that fell into the hands of the Xiongnu. He then saw the mixed forces of Xianbei and Wuhuan in the northwest, central and northeast of Youzhou.

Looking at the Shanyue people in Yangzhou, the barbarians in Jiaozhou, and the southern barbarians in Yizhou, his gaze finally fell on Jingzhou, Huainan, Central Plains, Hebei, Guanzhong and other places. They were either still in the process of restoring people's livelihood, or were waiting for large-scale development and reclamation.

Liu Bei couldn't help but shake his head and laugh, and said to Guo Jia with emotion: "Fengxiao, I don't know why, but every time I carefully look at the map of the Han Dynasty these days, I no longer feel the joy of regaining Chang'an, and there is only endless sorrow..."

"You may not believe it, but what I am worried about is not the internal and external troubles of the Han Dynasty, but the dangers of the whole world. If we are not careful, natural disasters and man-made disasters will occur at the same time. Whether it is the common people, the nobles, or the wealthy families, they will all suffer greatly."

"All I can do is...try my best to push forward and create a new world."

"Who is Liu Xuande? He is just a tall guy, seven feet five inches tall."

Liu Bei pointed his finger at himself and felt bitter. Worry was hanging heavy in his heart. Even if more beauties were presented to him, he had no heart to enjoy them.

Unexpectedly, Guo Jia stepped forward, bowed his hands solemnly and said: "The matter that the king is worried about, Jia, Wen Ruo, Gong Da, Yuan Long and others all know it. Not only that, Guan Taishou, Zhang Taishou, Qian Taishou, and Ganling Xiang all follow the king, because the king has the heart to save the world."

"The strength of one man is only a hundred pounds, but if ten thousand people work together, they have a force of one million, enough to shake the mountains." "Now, many scholars are serving the king, just to help the world. Zengzi said: A scholar must be broad-minded and resolute, the responsibility is heavy and the road is long. At this moment, many ambitious people and the people are following you, what is there to worry about?"

The King of Han is respectful to the wise and humble, and promotes officials from among the most humble positions. He treats them with strictness as a monarch and father, and with sincerity as a friend. All the officials promoted and employed by the counties and prefectures regard the King of Han as their lord.

The Yuan family of Runan used the reputation of having three high officials in four generations for decades to retain students and former officials.

It is also not as good as the kindness of the King of Han who promoted and appointed officials throughout the country in the past ten years.

In every state and county, as well as in any large county with a population of over ten thousand, all the Gongcao, Zhubu and other officials were appointed by the King of Han himself.

It can be said that in the four hundred years of the Han Dynasty, no emperor had directly controlled the counties, townships, and villages.

Even though it is easy to conquer the world but difficult to keep it, Guo Jia was more afraid that the King of Han would lose his ambition, so he immediately comforted him.

Liu Bei also reacted in time, so he clapped his hands and laughed, "I almost said something wrong. You must be calm and meticulous in everything you do, and gradually sort things out. Don't be afraid or rush."

"I am united with you all. No matter how difficult the road ahead is, we can still conquer nature."

Liu Bei knew that his mind was disturbed by the pile of troubles, and it was indeed difficult to deal with these things at the same time.

Fortunately, things can be done one by one, and the world's worries can be gradually eliminated.

After the urgent thought faded away, Liu Bei relaxed a little.

At that moment, hurried footsteps were heard from outside, and a clerk handed in a letter. It turned out that Duan Wei led his army from Huayin and attacked Zhang Xiu from behind. When the Liangzhou bandits were in panic, he captured several counties in Hongnong County and met up with Yu Jin in Hongnong City. Zhang Xiu, the nephew of Zhang Ji, saw that the situation was hopeless and his uncle was killed in Anyi, so he decided to leave the city and surrender.

However, Yu Jin and Duan Wei did not dare to make a decision easily, so they sent people to ask the King of Han for his opinion.

After reading the letter, Liu Bei remained silent. After a while, he asked the messenger, "The elite Liangzhou bandits were killed by Zhang Ji in Anyi a long time ago. How many Liangzhou bandits are there in Hongnong City now?"

The messenger recalled for a moment, then bowed and said, "Reporting to the king, Zhang Xiu is trapped in the city, and there are less than a thousand Liangzhou bandits. The rest are civilians recruited to defend the city."

"If we attack by force, we can capture this city in less than five days and kill Zhang Xiu."

Liu Bei thought about it and said decisively: "Guanzhong has been in decline for many years. We should try our best to avoid killing the people. If Zhang Xiu is willing to surrender, he can surrender, but his crime cannot be forgiven lightly."

"Give Zhang Xiu half a day to think about it. If the more than one thousand Liangzhou bandits are willing to do fifteen years of corvée labor, they can be spared from death. If not, they can be buried in the fields and become fertile land for the people."

After Liu Bei finished speaking, he no longer cared about Zhang Xiu's affairs and continued to discuss the matter of paying a visit to Changling with Guo Jia.

(End of this chapter)