I am not Yuan Shu

Chapter 289 Zhang Jian's Opposition

After making up his mind, Yuan Feng acted quickly.

On the second day, he summoned dozens of party officials who had already taken office and some officials from Yuan's group to the Secretariat, intending to hold a closed-door consultation meeting to approve Yuan Shu's plan to establish a new army.

Before talking about the establishment of the army, Yuan Feng first discussed some daily state affairs, especially focusing on the issue of clearing out the remnants of eunuchs.

There was no disagreement between Yuan and the party members on these issues. Everyone wanted to eradicate all the remaining eunuchs as quickly as possible, completely, without leaving any behind, and then divide up the spoils left behind after the eunuchs died.

Party officials will certainly not refuse such a thing that benefits everyone.

Although they consider themselves to be of the clean stream, they must not pay a penny less for the food they are supposed to eat and the money they are supposed to get.

After all these things were discussed, Yuan Feng brought up Yuan Shu's plan to establish a new army for discussion with everyone, such as where to allocate funds for this army.

Officials within the Yuan Group certainly had nothing to say about this matter.

Mao Yang, the Minister of Agriculture who controlled the court's financial power, was a former official of the Yuan family.

To go further, his identity is Yuan Feng's former official. It was Yuan Feng who promoted him to this position. His power and glory come from Yuan Feng. Naturally, whatever Yuan Feng says is what he does. At most, he can give some suggestions, but he will not object.

"Given the current financial situation of the court, it is not impossible to train a new army of 30,000 people. It's just that some of the surplus that was originally left over is gone. As for the shortfall, perhaps some of it will have to be transferred from other expenditures.

In short, it is of course possible to allocate funds, but how to allocate funds and from where to divert some of the less necessary funds to the new army requires further discussion. I hope Yuan Sikong will tolerate this."

Yuan Feng was still very happy after getting recognition from the financial department.

As far as he knew, the finances of the Luoyang court were indeed not loose, but the liquidation of the eunuchs allowed the treasury to make a big profit, and after a war to quell the rebellion, the court also got a share of the army's spoils and took a big sip.

These two supplements made the empty national treasury look better, not too ugly. Taking into account the liquidation of the eunuchs' assets, the part that was destined to be transferred to the national treasury was also relatively generous. If spent frugally, it would be enough to cover the court's expenses for two to three years.

After all, the finances of the Eastern Han court did improve to some extent after the eunuchs, which were a huge cancer, were eradicated.

The part of the profits originally occupied by the eunuchs had not yet been completely digested by the newly appointed scholar-officials. During this window period, even if no one carried out anti-corruption or financial reform, the court still had money to use.

Originally, the matter could have ended here.

Before the party officials returned collectively, Yuan Feng handled matters with his subordinates in this way. Basically, as long as Yuan Feng approved a matter, he would directly order it to be handled without the permission of Emperor Liu Kui.

Many things do not need to be handled by the emperor, and do not require the emperor's personal seal of approval. Even if something needs the emperor's seal of approval, in Yuan Feng's view, it is just a greeting to Liu Kui.

Yuan Feng has been doing things this way for several months, so much so that he has even become accustomed to this process.

The meeting on forming a new army was the first time he invited some scholars and officials who had just returned to the court to discuss the matter. He subconsciously made a conclusion on the matter according to the previous rules of procedure.

"Okay, since there are no financial problems, let's do this. After that, the Minister of Agriculture and the Secretariat will take the lead in mobilizing materials to handle this matter. We must implement it as soon as possible. The establishment of the new army cannot be delayed."

After Yuan Feng said this, the officials of the Yuan Group responded one after another. The whole occasion was very harmonious, the work efficiency was very high, and there were no obstacles in the process, as if it should always be this way.

However, it was this strange harmony that made a group of party officials feel inexplicably uncomfortable.

For example, Zhang Jian.

As one of the party leaders who had managed to survive the hunt by the eunuch chief, Zhang Jian enjoyed a high prestige among the scholar community of this period.

After returning from Yuan Shu's Maoling Liangzhuang, Zhang Jian was considered by Yuan Feng to be an official of the pro-Yuan group who could be won over and cooperated with because of his status, reputation and relationship with Yuan Shu, so Yuan Feng quickly found a job for him in the Censorate.

Compared with other party officials who had to go through a stepping stone like Yilan after returning, Zhang Jian skipped this step and directly entered the Censorate, becoming the third-ranked figure in the Censorate.

Yuan Feng also planned to hand over the position of Chief Censor to Zhang Jian after a while, and planned to arrange for Zhang Jian to assist the Yuan family's power to control Liu Kui's series of behaviors in the palace, so that Zhang Jian could truly enter the Yuan family group.

However, although Yuan Feng had a series of expectations for Zhang Jian, Zhang Jian expressed a different attitude when it came to Yuan Shu's plan to establish a new army.

He felt that Yuan Feng's way of handling things was a bit unruly. Forming a new army was no small matter, right?
This can even be considered a major military and national affair. Is such a big thing supposed to be handled by ministers in this way?
In fact, before this group of party officials received the imperial summons and decided to return to Luoyang, they had more or less learned about what was happening in Luoyang.

For example, they all knew that Yuan Feng and his son Yuan Shu launched a military rebellion to eliminate the eunuchs.

He also knew that Liu Kui replaced Liu Hong as the new emperor of the Han Dynasty.

Some well-informed people further learned that the Yuan family was currently in charge of the government, and speculated that Liu Kui was not yet an emperor with real power.

So after returning, they carefully inquired about information to confirm their own guesses, draw their own conclusions, and then formed various opinions on the current Luoyang government.

As one of the party leaders, Zhang Jian was certainly not a person who was out of touch with the news.

He soon learned from Liu Biao that the real power of the Luoyang court was in the hands of the Yuan father and son, and that Emperor Liu Kui was just a symbolic mascot, and even his personal freedom was firmly controlled by the Yuan father and son.

Zhang Jian was dissatisfied with this.

As early as when he returned, he had thought about discussing this matter with Yuan Feng and Yuan Shu, as he felt that their actions would be bad for their reputation.

However, the war to quell the rebellion was intensifying at that time, so he did not mention the matter for the time being.

Now that the rebellion was over, Zhang Jian felt that it was time to renegotiate the matter, and he also wanted to test whether Yuan and his son were sincere Han ministers or traitors with ulterior motives.

this point is very important.

So he thought for a while, chose his words a little, and then took the initiative to speak.

"Minister Yuan, the establishment of a new military is of great importance. It is not appropriate for us, the ministers, to make a decision on such a big matter by just discussing it privately. Shouldn't we report it to the emperor and let him summon all the ministers for an open discussion before making a final decision?"

After Zhang Jian asked this question, Yuan Feng felt a little strange for a moment.

Because for a long time in the past, no one had spoken to him like this, and no one would take the initiative to suggest that Liu Kui participate in the government. Those who had mentioned it earlier had been swept out by him, and those who remained were all Yuan's own people.

So Yuan Feng naturally thought that such a situation would not occur.

It was not until Zhang Jian asked this question that Yuan Feng suddenly realized it.

Oh, right!

The people who come to discuss things now are different from before.

The reason why he called these people together to ask this question was mainly to test their political attitudes and see whether they were willing to support Yuan’s dictatorship and whether they could accept the current political situation.

In any case, it is impossible for the Yuan family to give up power voluntarily.

Yuan Feng remembered what Yuan Shu had told him before, so he decided that before further promoting party officials, he should at least determine whether these appointed people could support Yuan's dictatorship.

If not, and you still let him get to a high position, wouldn't that be just asking for trouble?

Yuan Feng would not do such a stupid thing now.

However, even after figuring this out, Yuan Feng was still somewhat surprised that the first person to stand up and raise questions was Zhang Jian. He did not expect that the first person among the Return Party members to stand up and question Yuan’s dictatorship would be Zhang Jian!
You have to know that Zhang Jian was chased by Cao Jie to the point where he had no way to go up to heaven or down to earth, and he was in constant fear like a stray dog. All the people who took him in were killed by Cao Jie. In order to cover his escape, it is unknown how many families' lives were destroyed.

Finally he ran to Qingzhou and was about to be forced into the sea to feed the fish. Fortunately, the people sent by Yuan found him ahead of time and took him to Guanzhong to be protected by Yuan Shu. Yuan Shu fought against the eunuchs several times and finally saved his life.

It can be said that the Yuan family was his savior, there is absolutely no doubt about that!
Moreover, Yuan Shu not only rescued him from Cao Ji, but also protected him in a safe place for several years, providing him with food, water and clothes. Although he did not have fine clothes and delicious food, at least he did not have any difficulty in survival.

They treated him so well, protected him at such great risks until now, and even gave him an official position. But he was the first to stand up and question the Yuan family's dictatorship. This is really hard to understand.

So it was not just Yuan Feng who found this matter difficult to accept. Many officials who knew the inside story of the matter also looked at Zhang Jian with strange eyes.

They also feel that the Yuan family has taken such good care of you, Zhang Jian, but you actually took the lead in opposing them. It’s really unacceptable, right?
(End of this chapter)