The revival of the Han Dynasty must start with Dong Zhuo

Chapter 376 Volume Open the Window
Ju Su was not in a hurry to reply to the emperor, but continued to ask the emperor:

"How does your majesty want to treat the people of Hebei?"

"We are all Han people. I will not favor one over the other."

Liu Xie understood Ju Su's concerns.

"Many people are probably worried that I will put Yuan Shao's hatred on the people of Hebei and will take precautions against them."

"You are wrong."

"To put it in a broader sense, although I am not a saintly monarch, I am not so petty as to force the people of Hebei to become alienated from me."

"To put it mildly, although I hate Yuan Shao, I definitely don't hate him to the core."

"After Emperor Gaozu killed Xiang Yu, he did not think of slaughtering the people of Chu to vent his anger. Instead, he buried Xiang Yu in Gucheng according to the standards of Duke Lu and even allowed people to go and pay tribute to Xiang Yu... I will not do anything that Emperor Gaozu did not do. It is meaningless."

Liu Xie sat upright, seemingly hesitating whether he should make his words more clearly.

"Bo Shu, I don't want to argue with you about the harm of the aristocratic family."

"Perhaps you have thousands of reasons, such as your family property was accumulated by yourselves from generation to generation, and your land was obtained by you through "legitimate" means..."

"But no matter how many reasons you have, none of them are as important as my one reason—"

Liu Xie looked at Ju Shou, without any regret for the killing in his eyes: "That is, the lower-class people in Hebei will not be able to survive."

"The more prosperous the aristocratic families were, the more vicious the Yellow Turban Rebellion was."

"I believe you will understand this truth."

"So, I have to kill people!"

Liu Xie handed a document to Ju Su and said, "These families are all rats that even Yuan Shao cannot stand."

"Start with these first, and I will slowly take care of the others."

Ju Su took the document, looked at the name on it, and immediately closed it.

"I thought Lord Yuan never cared about these things, but I didn't expect that he remembered every single one of them."

At this moment, Ju Su suddenly looked old.

Although none of those families had any relatives of his, the Hebei gentry were all related, so there were always some close relatives among them.

Once these richest families are eliminated, the Hebei gentry will completely lose their room for resistance.

So Ju Su couldn't help but ask: "Your Majesty, do you really intend to take action against these people right from the start? Aren't you afraid that the Hebei nobles will gather together and fight against the court?"

Liu Xie shook his head confidently.

"Bo Shu, I once learned a truth—"

"People always like to compromise. For example, if you say that the room is too dark and you need to open a window, they will definitely not allow it. But if you advocate tearing down the roof, they will compromise and be willing to open the window."

"The reason why I shouted the slogan of killing all the nobles before was to tear down this roof. Now I "take a step back" and give them a few positions of the Three Dukes and Nine Ministers, and they will be willing to let me open this window."

"Governing a large country is like cooking a small fish. I understand this principle, so I will take my time."

Liu Xie took the official document from Ju Shou, and Ju Shou looked stunned, and it took him a long time to react.

"How good it is to open a window! How good it is to govern a large country like cooking a small fish!"

Ju Su was completely convinced at this moment.

In other words, Ju Shou knew that he no longer cared about everyone's lives.

Even if he is Ju Su, in such a desperate situation, he can only save himself first.

"I... am willing to start over again with Your Majesty!"

"Okay, I'll give you a copy of the Jian'an Law. Prepare well for this imperial examination!"

"Here..."

……

Three days later.

The emperor personally issued an edict, appointing Tian Feng as Minister of Education, Cui Yan as Chief Justice, Xing Yong as Minister of Agriculture, and Shen Rong as Minister of the Imperial Household.

Tian Feng, Cui Yan and Xing Yong were all famous scholars in Hebei, and Shen Rong was the nephew of Shen Pei.

When the scholars in Hebei heard the news, they all thought they had won a great victory and were overjoyed.

Only Cui Yan's younger brother Cui Lin came to dissuade his brother: "The current situation is unclear. How can your talent and reputation match the position of the Nine Ministers? Please decline the position of the Nine Ministers and do not accept it!"

Cui Yan said: "Now the emperor is compassionate to me and has given me such a generous reward. How can I let him down?"

Cui Lin knew that Cui Yan was confused by the importance of the Nine Ministers, so he started packing his bags after returning home and went into seclusion in the mountains with his family.

Cui Lin also said to others: "Brother is upright and honest, which should be a good thing. But now the situation is unclear, and brother's character may not only not help him, but also bring disaster to the family!"

When Cui Yan heard that his brother had escaped, he hurried to the emperor to plead guilty, fearing that the emperor would blame him for this and remove him from his position as one of the Nine Ministers.

But the emperor only advised them kindly and did not take the matter to heart. After conferring titles on the four men, he immediately produced a list of names and listed the evidence of their crimes, and ordered Lu Bu and Liu Bei to bring people to search their houses.

The families who were sent the Yama Invitation became furious immediately and quickly mobilized their previous connections to ask for help.

There were even people who had connections so well that they went straight to Tian Feng, who had just become one of the three highest officials of the Han Dynasty, and asked him to plead for them.

Tian Feng was embarrassed: "How can I tell the emperor such a thing at this time?"

"Besides, since the emperor has sufficient evidence, if we still go against him now, I am afraid that he will think that we, the scholars of Hebei, have rebellious intentions, which will not be worth the loss!"

In order to protect themselves, both Tian Feng and other Hebei scholars tacitly blocked the access of these families and decided to sacrifice the other party in exchange for wealth and honor for their own new dynasty.

When the news reached the selected families, they were extremely indignant: "Some are sacrificed today, and some are sacrificed tomorrow. The blood of the Hebei scholars has been shed cleanly. How can they still have the strength to resist!"

When these words reached the ears of the nobles who had surrendered to the emperor, they immediately caused an uproar.

They were afraid that the emperor would blame them for these people's remarks, and even took the initiative to write a letter to the emperor, asking him to execute them quickly!
Regarding this…

Of course the emperor is willing to follow advice!
Although several wealthy and powerful families tried to resist stubbornly, they were still eliminated one by one by Lu Bu and Liu Bei.

The fields, property, gold and treasures seized were truly eye-opening!

Lu Bu and Liu Bei were both considered high-ranking officials in the Han Dynasty court, but when they saw the wealth of these families, they were secretly shocked and thought that they were extremely poor.

But after the surprise came anger.

Liu Bei said angrily: "Every brick and tile is made from the blood and sweat of the people! If these people had only distributed half of these wealth to help the people, the Yellow Turban Rebellion in Hebei would not have reached such a situation!"

"Yes."

Lu Bu, this iron man, was also a little sad.

"When I was a soldier at the frontier, the soldiers and I ate old rice that had been rotten for a long time. I didn't know where the ten-year-old rice came from before, but now that I see the treasury of these people, I finally understand where the food came from!"

Even if the grain in the treasury was rotten, they were unwilling to distribute it to the hungry people.

Even though his family had so much money that they could pave the ground with gold, he was unwilling to reduce or exempt taxes for the tenants of his farm. Instead, he increased the taxation.

Such a person, no matter how many people he kills, will never have the slightest bit of mercy!

After obtaining the treasury and land of these people, the emperor immediately ordered Zhong Yao and Xun You to begin formulating post-war rewards for the Battle of Hebei.

Gold, silver and cloth for the lower-class soldiers.

The honor of the position of a mid-level colonel.

And the highest pursuit of the Han Dynasty’s generals today—pillar of the country!
"Appoint Gao Shun as the General Guarding the East, confer him the title of Marquis of Yanjin, and make him the Minister of State!"

"Appoint Zhao Yun as the General Guarding the North, confer him the title of Marquis of Baima, and make him the leader of the state!"

"Appoint Zhang Fei as the General Guarding the West, confer him the title of Marquis of Liyang, and make him the Minister of State!"

Including Xu Huang, who was named General Zheng Bei for his previous military exploits in Bingzhou, four pillars of the country were born in this war!
The reason for being in a hurry to confer titles on the pillars of the country was naturally to let them quickly form a government army in Hebei!

The series of actions are dazzling.

Before Tian Feng and other Hebei scholars could react, Gao Shun, Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun had already started to distribute land equally in Hebei and established a military government.

It was at this time that some Hebei scholars began to feel that something was not quite right.

As the organization of these government soldiers gradually becomes complete, the order in Hebei will inevitably face a severe impact!

In this impact, who can remain immune?

At least……

After the emperor ordered several pillars of the state to start establishing a government army, a large number of tenants from powerful families had already fled to the imperial land.

Compared with the inhumane treatment of the aristocratic families, the treatment of the palace soldiers is simply like that of gods!
As for these tenants who had escaped, several pillars of the country, under the instruction of the emperor, carried out equal distribution of land among them.

Even if one cannot become a government soldier, just being an ordinary citizen under the equal-field system is much better than being a tenant of those aristocratic families.

Now even Tian Feng, Cui Yan and others could no longer sit still, and they all came to Yecheng and requested to meet the emperor.

But Yang Xiu, a close minister to the emperor, looked sad: "The emperor has been ill these days, please forgive me for not being able to go in and inform him."

The emperor is sick?

Upon hearing this, Zhong Yao, Xun You, Liu Bei, Lu Bu and others rushed over to ask Yang Xiu about the emperor's situation.

"Minister Yang! Is the emperor really ill? Don't lie to us!"

Seeing that it was one of his own, Yang Xiu also chuckled.

This smile immediately made everyone relax, knowing that the emperor was just pretending not to want to meet Tian Feng and other Hebei nobles.

"The emperor says he is ill, but he is not. But the emperor says he is not ill, but he is also ill."

Yang Xiu's words made Zhong Yao glare at him angrily: "Grandpa De! We are all your uncles and elders! Even your father wouldn't dare to play like this! Hurry up and tell me!"

Seeing that he had really angered Zhong Yao, Yang Xiu had no choice but to raise his hands and beg for mercy: "The emperor's illness now may be lovesickness!"

(End of this chapter)