My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 432 Entrusted with important tasks
After listening to Zhuge Liang's analysis, Liu Bei gained more confidence in the official system reform of "taking Youzhou as the initial pilot, splitting the powers of the governors, and setting up defense envoys and provincial governors."

The timing, the place, and the person to be promoted, all three aspects are good. If you don’t do it now, when will you do it?
However, Liu Bei soon felt the trouble of having too many highly intelligent advisers around him.

The Zhuge brothers, one in charge of system design and the other in charge of perfecting the timing of execution, had already polished the matter to about 70% perfection.

But there happened to be Pang Tong beside him, who was not an easy person to deal with. He also wanted to show off himself, and after thinking hard for a long time about the loopholes in this plan, Pang Tong really discovered a hidden danger.

Pang Tong interrupted immediately, "My Lord! We must be careful about this matter! Even if we want to split it up and set up new positions privately, perhaps we should not act in this way and should not formally submit a petition to the court in Xudu. Please make it clear that no one other than your Majesty will be allowed to be governor of a state from now on!"
Anyway, Your Majesty is controlled by Cao thief, and Cao thief will definitely want to continue to appoint governors from other families. Just the Cao family and Xiahou family themselves will want to have more governors in the future, so Cao Cao will definitely let Your Majesty veto this request. "

When Zhuge Liang heard this, his eyes rolled and he thought for a few seconds.

Zhuge Jin's real IQ was slightly lower than his second brother's. He could only tie with his second brother because of his foresight as a time traveler. Now that Pang Tong suddenly raised an objection, Zhuge Jin didn't quite grasp the point. He directly retorted:

"So what if Cao thief forced Your Majesty to veto it? That would only prove that Cao thief is deceiving the emperor and only wants to seize power arbitrarily, not willing to let the government return to the emperor. This memorial from our army is to help the emperor centralize power."

Pang Tong shook his head slightly and analyzed in a low voice: "This is not the key point. The key point is that our petition says that 'old people should follow the old rules, new people should follow the new rules'. The governors of different surnames who have become governors of the states can be retained, but no new appointments will be allowed in the future.

Once this memorial is submitted, if I were Cao, I would use it to further win over Ma Teng of Xiliang. Cao could say: Liu Xuande is wary of outsiders and does not want you to become the governor of Liangzhou, but I am willing to go against all odds and confer the title of governor of Liangzhou on my virtuous brother.

I oppose this request not for my own Cao family, but for my brother. If this is done, Ma Teng will surely die for Cao. This year, our army and Cao's army were both exhausted and reached a truce.

Next year our army will definitely take action against Gongsun Du, and if Cao wants to expand his power, he can either choose to directly attack Bohai County or try to cut off Qing and You.

Either we fight our own battles, and Cao fights his own. In this case, Cao may win over Ma Han and go south to attack Zhang Lu. Or he may ally with Ma to destroy Han and then attack Zhang Lu. In short, it is not good for us to sit back and watch Ma Teng die for Cao, or even push Ma Teng to die for Cao. "

Pang Tong did not dare to continue to be aggressive, and waited for Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang to make their own decisions. He also knew that he was relatively insignificant, and it was not up to him to decide whether the proposal was adopted or not.

Zhuge Jin came to his senses at this point. When he looked at his second brother again, he found that his second brother still had that serious expression. He knew that Zhuge Liang had already realized Pang Tong's subtext.

It seems that my second brother's brain reaction speed is still faster than mine.

After seeing the performance of the three people, Liu Bei knew that what he said was indeed reasonable.

His own memorials could win over and unite the royal family. But for governors of other surnames, or those of other surnames who wanted to become governors, there would definitely be resistance to push them out.

There is gain and loss. If you win over Liu Biao and Liu Zhang, you will offend Ma Teng. Now, in the world, apart from the territory directly under Cao Cao, there is only Liangzhou left, which is actually controlled by foreign princes.

Liu Bei looked at Zhuge Liang, hoping that he would come up with a revision plan. Zhuge Liang understood and cleared his throat:

"In this case, perhaps our army can slow down a bit. Let Zilong go to Youzhou first, and actually serve as the defense commander and take on the responsibility. As for the title, we can give it to him after a few months.

If Cao Cao intended to win over Ma Teng, he might actually appoint someone as the Governor of Liang Province within this year.

It would be a safe option for us to wait until Ma Teng is officially conferred the title, and then submit a petition to Your Majesty asking him to 'stop here'."

"Then let's do it," Liu Bei did not hesitate any longer and made the decision directly, "However, since this is just a real position without a title, we need to assign Zilong a suitable governor to coordinate the money and food needed by the Youzhou garrison - what do you think of Zizhong?"

Liu Bei did not wait for his subordinates to suggest candidates, but directly came up with an option.

Of course, the Zhuge brothers and Pang Tong had no objection to this.

Before the Governor/Defender system was officially launched, it was not easy to find a candidate who could perfectly match Zhao Yun's division of responsibilities, and there were no other options available.

Mi Zhu had enough seniority in Liu Bei's camp. Although in this life he did not do as exaggerated as "helping Liu Bei in times of crisis", after the Battle of Guangling that year, he helped Wang Lang to raise military rations and paid for it out of his own pocket, so his contribution was still considerable.

Let him become the next civil servant to be promoted to the high position of "deputy state level", and the other people under Liu Bei were also convinced. Moreover, the Mi family was engaged in maritime business, so they were asked to transport money and weapons to the Youzhou garrison by sea, responsible for external blood transfusion, which was considered a professional counterpart.

If others wanted to question, Liu Bei could just retort: If you can do it, go ahead and do it. You can pay for the sea freight out of your own pocket and help the court solve the problem of transporting foreign aid materials for the Youzhou garrison. You can also be the governor.

After Mi Zhu was chosen, Zhuge Liang also followed this line of thought and made additional suggestions:

"My lord, originally our army had the most internal affairs talents in Xuzhou, and most of the important officials from Yuan Cong served in various counties in Xuzhou. After all, Guangling and Donghai were the foundations for my lord to start over from the desperate situation.

Previously, Zizhong had served as the governor of Donghai, and Yuanlong as the governor of Guangling, which happened to be the governors of these two counties that served as the original bases. Because of their similar merits and qualifications, the power of Xuzhou's internal affairs was divided more finely.

Now that Zi Zhong has been transferred, Yuan Long can be put in charge of the civil affairs of the entire Xuzhou, and serve as Yun Chang's deputy. Yun Chang is still the governor of Xuzhou in name, but in fact he mainly exercises the power of the defense envoy.

In the future, the ideal defense envoy, provincial governor, and provincial governor should be equal and not subordinate to each other. Now in the initial stage, we can gradually transition. First, let Yunchang be slightly higher in status than Yuanlong, and Yuanlong actually has full power over internal affairs. After the personnel transfer in the future, they can gradually become equal. "Zhuge Liang's idea is that when Guan Yu was in Xuzhou, Xuzhou must have been under Guan Yu's control, and his status was half a level higher than that of the internal affairs officials of the same period.

But this is a special arrangement for Guan Yu personally. If Guan Yu makes more contributions in the future, he will definitely be promoted and transferred. After Guan Yu leaves Xuzhou, the governance of Xuzhou can be smoothly transitioned to a new model.

Liu Bei also agreed with this, and everyone passed it directly without any objection.

In this way, the state-level personnel transfers and system design have been thoroughly sorted out:
Youzhou has a brand new team, and both civil and military officials follow the new system.

As for Xuzhou, because Mi Zhu was transferred away, Chen Deng was the only one in power in the civil service circle, so Chen Deng was put in charge.

Jingzhou can be used as a defense envoy for Zhang Fei in the future, but now he needs to take the title. Moreover, Xiangyang is in the hands of Liu Biao, so Liu Bei should not immediately adjust the official system of Jingzhou. The current system should be maintained for at least a few years. Anyway, don't make any changes before Liu Biao dies of illness.

Yangzhou has completely become a peaceful rear area and there is no need to move for the time being.

The rest of Qingzhou still belongs to Yuan Tan. Yuan Tan will be retained as the pastor of Qingzhou for a long time, so he cannot do anything special.

There are a total of four officials newly promoted to the "deputy provincial level" this time: Zhao Yun and Zhang Fei in the military, and Mi Zhu and Chen Deng in the civil.

If they do well in the pilot, they will expand it to other people a few years later.

In this way, a new path for advancement can also be demonstrated to other civil and military officials.

After all, Liu Bei already had many powerful prefectural officials under his command, and if the original system of provincial governors was followed, only a few could be promoted to the provincial level, and most people had no room for further promotion. If there were too few provincial governors, it would be easy to centralize power, and a few generations would pass by, forming a feudal system.

Now that the powers of state officials have been split, a state can have three chief officials, each in charge of a different area of work. This way, the county governors below will also have more motivation.

After all, as long as they work hard and help Liu Bei expand his territory and eventually successfully support the Han Dynasty, then it is estimated that nearly half of the current county governors will be promoted to state-level cadres in the future, and the motivation for struggle will be ignited at once.

Liu Bei did so, completing the personnel dispatch process one by one and assigning them step by step.

……

Three days later, Zhao Yun, who was also in Hefei City, officially received a transfer order from Liu Bei.

When he went to the General of Chariots and Cavalry's headquarters to formally receive the order, Zhuge Jin was also there.

Liu Bei was not shy and gave the order directly:
"Zilong, since Yuan Tan became our vassal, his military strength in Youzhou has been unsustainable and unable to resist Cao Cao's possible attacks in the future. So I plan to take advantage of the truce now and send you to Youzhou to take full charge of defense, while Zizhong will be responsible for raising money, food and military supplies, and also manage internal affairs.

Youzhou was bitterly cold, and it was impossible to raise much money and grain through local internal affairs, so a considerable portion of the garrison expenses had to be shipped in from outside.

After you go, you can ask Zi Zhong for help with your daily needs. If there are any major military matters that cannot be decided, send someone to Langya to ask Zi Yu for instructions. There is no need to come to Hefei for instructions on everything. The journey is too long and will delay things.

I have entrusted Ziyu with full authority to handle the military and political affairs of Qing, You, Ji and the northern part of Xuzhou - this is also because the other states were previously Yuan Tan's territories, and it is not advisable to rely entirely on Yuan Tan.

Therefore, Langya and Donghai in the north of Xuzhou were assigned to Ziyu directly, so that he could have a base. Pengcheng, Xiapi and Guangling in the south of Xuzhou were still under Yunchang's sole jurisdiction to guard against the Xuhuai Cao army. "

Zhao Yun naturally had no objection and directly accepted the order, saying that he would follow Zhuge Jin's orders in the future.

Liu Bei gave some more instructions and assigned other military officers to make arrangements: "The defense of the northern states, including Bohai County in Jizhou, will be handed over to Gongjin. Gongjin is good at naval forces and can defend Nanpi and the newly built city of Tianjin, relying on the Bohai coast and the Zhangshui River to defend.

Qingzhou is located in the defense zone north of Mount Tai and south of the Yellow River, which also has some loopholes. Ziyi has worked with his nephew Xiansi for the longest time and can gain his trust the most, so he was put in charge of the defense of Jinan County and stationed in Dongpingling to prevent Cao's army from infiltrating Qingzhou between the Yellow River and Mount Tai.

You, Gongjin, and Ziyi will all be assigned to Ziyu. If there are any other civil and military officials who need cooperation, Ziyu will make a list. As long as they are suitable, I will send them."

Liu Bei's decision brought his trust in Zhuge Jin to a new level. He nominally gave Zhuge Jin jurisdiction over the affairs of three and a half states, which was more power than when he was originally in charge of the affairs of Yangzhou.

Of course, there weren't that many in reality. Youzhou only had the eastern half left, and Liaodong was missing. Jizhou only had one county, Bohai, which was also incomplete. Qingzhou still had Yuan Tan nominally in charge. Only Langya and Donghai counties in Xuzhou were actually well managed.

If all is added up, Zhuge Jin's real power is roughly equivalent to controlling less than two states. Yangzhou is a big state, and now it controls small states. The increase in real power from two for one is not obvious, but it is mainly a better name.

In this kind of situation, Liu Bei would only delegate power to the Zhuge brothers and Guan Yu.

As for the others, Liu Bei was absolutely unsure, including Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun. In Liu Bei's eyes, they were talents of one state at most, and if they were in charge of several states, something would probably go wrong.

(End of this chapter)