Wait, please don't call me Emperor Zhaolie

Chapter 423 Gongsun Du: Conditional Surrender

Liu Bei suddenly thought of a person who would be very suitable to be sent to the southern part of Yizhou to pacify the barbarians, and then asked, "Is Liu Bo'an still in the Yunyang Palace?"

Now, after looking through the court officials, no one except the clan member Liu Yu is more suitable to pacify the barbarians.

This man was quite a man of integrity. Upon learning that Liu Bei had written a letter to Gongsun Zan to save the lives of his family, he returned to Luoyang and often stayed indoors. When some officials wanted to pay a visit to him, he sent his servants to send them away politely.

Liu Yu knew that his identity and situation were awkward, so he did not take the initiative to make friends with any official, which was in stark contrast to Gongsun Zan who visited officials everywhere in Luoyang.

So when Guo Jia reminded him, Liu Bei immediately thought of Liu Yu.

"Your Majesty, Liu Bo'an is still in the palace." Guo Jia replied with a bow.

Compared with Liu Dai, Liu Yao, Liu Zhang, Liu Biao and other princes of the royal family, Liu Yu was much freer. Not only did he hold a position in the court, but he also did not make officials avoid him for fear of tarnishing his reputation.

"Since he is still here, it's perfect. Then call him..." Liu Bei looked at the sky outside, which had already darkened. The servants in the palace had all lit up the bright lights, so he immediately changed his words: "Summon him to the palace early tomorrow morning. I want to ask for his opinion before making a decision."

"Yes!" Fa Zheng responded with a bow from behind.

Then Liu Bei said again: "The Zhongshutai and Shangshutai have been working hard for a long time recently without a day to rest. Starting tomorrow, they will take turns to rest."

"Furthermore, since the establishment of the imperial court, there are fewer central government officials, and many people do not know much about the new system and how to implement it, so they are too busy to handle it. It would be better to open a school for officials, select the chancellors, officials, and assistant officials of the six ministries and nine ministers, and those with good moral character and intelligence to serve as students. They can handle government affairs during the day and attend my lectures at night, so that they can become familiar with it as soon as possible."

As soon as Liu Bei finished speaking, Guo Jia was dumbfounded. The emperor was already busy during the day, so why did he have to work overtime at night? He used to command troops and patrol the camp at night, but now he has become a lecturer to assistants. He really doesn't give himself any chance to rest.

"Your Majesty, isn't this too tiring? After all, we still have to deal with the political affairs of the 85 counties during the day." Guo Jia asked with some concern.

Although the Shangshu Tai was responsible for most of the paperwork, some decisions still required the emperor's personal review, and the Zhongshu Tai also had to deal with military affairs throughout the country.

The emperor has so many things to take care of, but he still finds time to teach. He can be said to be one of the few diligent emperors in the history of the Han Dynasty.

As both were emperors of royal family origin, if Huan and Ling knew about this in the afterlife, they would be ashamed and sweat like a fool.

Liu Bei shook his head and smiled as he explained, "Fengxiao, you don't know that when we were on the battlefield, we camped outside. By the time I finished inspecting the camp and comforting the soldiers every night, it was already late at night, just in time for me to go back to my tent and sleep soundly."

"Now that I don't need to travel much, and the Shangshutai is responsible for the affairs of the prefectures and counties across the country, I have a lot of free time."

"But it would be boring to return to the palace early. I have two hours to spare. You can't ask me to indulge in music and sex every day, right?"

"Don't worry. It's human nature to relax. I will definitely relax. It's just that this is unknown to you, my ministers."

Liu Bei patted Guo Jia on the shoulder, relaxed his brows and smiled.

Hearing this, Guo Fengxiao immediately reacted, grinned, and said, "I only hope that Your Majesty can adjust the yin and yang as soon as possible so that the prosperity of the Han family can be achieved sooner."

It was useless to urge such a thing, and no one dared to speak out. The ministers in the court could only wait for good news. Liu Bei, who was about to leave, suddenly remembered something, so he stopped and frowned and said, "Yong, Liang and Guanzhong have been at war for a long time, and they have also lived together with the Hu people and have been infected with many customs. We should forgive the people for minor crimes to save their strength, and severely punish major crimes to correct the social order."

"Because the wars have been going on for years, causing great suffering to the people of the two states, an imperial edict was issued to the counties, asking the officials to reduce or exempt the people's taxes according to the local conditions and the number of people in each family. If corvée labor is to be levied for construction in various places, it must be done with consideration and the service location should not be far away."

"If local treasuries do not have excess grain and herbs, no corvée will be imposed. Let them endure the hard years ahead, and then make arrangements based on their capabilities."

"I obey your orders!"

Many officials in the palace were shocked and bowed in unison in response.

This is what a ruler of the world should be like, with compassion for the common people. It is for this reason that the Han Dynasty was able to win every battle.

……

In November of the first year of Jianxing, the southernmost counties of Jiaozhou successively submitted to Liu Bei, and Liu Bei then appointed Shi Xie as the temporary governor of Jiaozhou.

On the seventh day of the twelfth month, Gongsun Du, who was far away in Liaodong, could not resist any more and submitted a letter asking for surrender. He only hoped that the emperor would pardon Gongsun's sins, not transfer him to the court, and let him continue to serve as the governor of Liaodong and concurrently govern several counties. He was willing to offer Liaodong County, Xuantu County, Lelang County, Yangle County of Liaoxi County, and the large tracts of land conquered from Goguryeo to Your Majesty.

After reading the memorial, Liu Bei could not help laughing and wrote back two words: "Wishful thinking!"

If Gongsun Du knew how to judge the situation and came to Chang'an in person to surrender, he would be shown leniency.

How dare you still be so rampant at this moment? Do you really think that if you can defend Liaodong, the Han generals will not be able to attack?
If we don’t kill and annihilate Gongsun Du’s three clans in the future, how can we avenge the loss of Qingzhou?

On December 13, Yu Jin ordered the soldiers to send Han Sui's head, which was still open after his death, to Yunyang Palace at full speed. Also attached were the heads of some leaders of the Qiang tribe. These were cleaned, pickled with anti-odor lime, and sent to the residence of the barbarians to be hung.

This move by the Han Dynasty undoubtedly made some Huns frightened.

On December 15, Wuwei governor Zhang Meng submitted a memorial claiming that the escaped Liangzhou bandits were in Jiuquan County, and had tricked the governor into death in the name of King of Donglai, and were trying to flee to Dunhuang County. At the moment, he was fighting with governor Zhang Gong, and was afraid that the rebels would force the Han princes to flee to the Western Regions.

Now that Longxi, Jincheng and Wudu have been captured, he would like to request permission to mobilize 4,000 county soldiers from Wuwei and Zhangye to pursue in the direction of Jiuquan.

When Liu Bei learned the news, he discussed it with ministers including Guo Jia and Xun Yu for a day, and immediately issued an edict to Yu Jin and many other generals, ordering Zhang Meng to withdraw troops from Jincheng County and no longer need to participate in the campaign against the Qiang and Hu.

At the same time, he specifically warned Zhang Meng not to be so eager to achieve merit that he would forget the safety of the King of Donglai, the Queen and others. If he advanced his troops without authorization and killed the King of Donglai, he would be guilty of high treason.

Liu Bei did not want to give such a harsh order. After all, Zhang Meng was a ruthless man who wanted to gain merit so much that he abandoned his most beloved concubine and let his former concubine die tragically in the chaos of the army.

If Zhang Meng was not given a strict order, who knew whether Liu Xie, Fu Shou, and the former three dukes and nine ministers who were left in Wuwei County would be able to return to Chang'an alive.

Liu Bei, who had already become the emperor, did not want to take the blame for no reason.

(End of this chapter)