My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 581 Today I am proud of the Three Dukes, tomorrow the Three Dukes will be proud of me

Liu Bei seems to have a magical power to soothe people's hearts.

It can make the unfathomable and profound power of those in power become intimate and trustworthy.

This ability cannot be explained by eloquence, emotional intelligence, or interpersonal skills, but exists in the subtle and consistent style of doing things.

It's like even if Cao Cao used the same tone and expression, 100% replicated, and said the same lines as Liu Bei, many people still wouldn't believe him. So Cao Cao could only rely on laws and clear rewards and punishments to gather people's hearts and stabilize the situation.

But when Liu Bei said the same thing, more people believed him. This is a very metaphysical state.

Before Zhuge Jin reunited with Liu Bei, he had some doubts and concerns in his heart, but after he talked it out so frankly, he felt relieved.

It’s just Situ, just take the position.

Liu Bei’s words reminded him of a banner hung in the school before the college entrance examination in his previous life: Today I am proud of my alma mater, and tomorrow my alma mater will be proud of me.

The reputation of the Three Dukes had long been ruined by the selling of official positions during the reigns of Emperors Huan and Ling. During Liu Xie's years of wandering, the Three Dukes became just empty titles for rewarding meritorious service.

From this perspective, it makes sense for Cao Cao to abolish the three highest officials. He just wanted to break the old and establish the new. The old must go before the new can come.

In this case, Liu Bei is now rebuilding the old system under the banner of "preventing the Han Dynasty from becoming isolated and weak". As Zhuge Jin becomes the first Si Tu after the re-establishment of the position, he must rebuild the reputation of the position.

From then on, even after hundreds of generations, historians who wrote the history of official system would also comment: The positions of the Three Dukes were abolished and restored several times. After the last reset, it was all thanks to Zhuge Jin's personal example that he restored the reputation of the position of Minister of Education.

Let’s take this as a small goal for the next stage, but do our best and keep moving forward!
……

Zhuge Jin accepted the official position recommended by Liu Bei with peace of mind. With him as a leading example, other people with lower official positions did not have to worry about the problem of "being too successful and shocking the ruler".

Afterwards, Liu Bei ordered a grand banquet to be held in the Wuchang Marquis's mansion, with music and dancing to keep them entertained for a few days, while he also had people prepare for the ceremony of enthroning and granting the seal.

As they drank and feasted, the slight alienation and estrangement that had accumulated among the civil and military officials in Guandong due to not having seen Liu Bei for two or three years was once again completely dispelled.

At the banquet, after Zhuge Jin expressed his opinion, Guan Yu also gladly accepted the post of General Wei.

Guan Yu actually didn't worry at first whether his elder brother would dislike his high position, although the ranking of important generals in the Han Dynasty was "Da Piao Chariot Guard", and the general of guards was right after the general of chariots and cavalry. But Guan Yu didn't mind that his general rank was only one rank lower than his elder brother's.

What Guan Yu was worried about was that Cao Cao rejected the promotions of all the generals, but let the emperor approve Guan Yu's position as General of the Guard, and also approved his third brother's position as General of the Right.

Guan Yu felt that Cao Cao's appreciation of him was a little too high, which made him feel uncomfortable.

So at the banquet, Guan Yu also found the right opportunity to say that "he could refuse the gold seal sent by Xudu and ask his elder brother to cast another one for him."

But Liu Bei was very frank and said directly: "This shows that although Cao is a traitor, he still has vision. My second brother is invincible in the world, even the enemy knows it!
Those tyrants are just bad, not stupid. I will repay his evil intentions, and I approve of his vision. It's okay to just accept the gold seal from Xudu."

Since Liu Bei said so, what else can Guan Yu say?
I can only pretend to be calm in public, accept it humbly, and then secretly be moved behind closed doors when I get home.

After a few days of feasting, the ceremony of conferring titles and promotions was ready, and Liu Bei held a grand and formal ceremony outside Wuchang City, near Yingwu Island.

The official title itself does not need to be so grand, but Liu Bei wanted to do it in full, and he had to express his anger at the emperor being a puppet and oppressed. This was also to declare to everyone present: the emperor rejected most of the terms in the memorial, which was not his original intention.

There is no need to elaborate on the cumbersome process.

Afterwards, Liu Bei took on the position of Grand Marshal in public on the basis of his previous positions as General of Chariots and Cavalry and Minister of the Imperial Clan.

The rest of the civil and military officials all congratulated him.

After completing this step of the process, it will be the turn of other civil and military officials.

Zhuge Jin stepped forward first and respectfully accepted Situ's gold seal and purple ribbon.

After that, it was Guan Yu's title of General of the Guard and Zhang Fei's title of Right General - among the four generals, Right General should not have been the first to receive the title, but the decree regarding Zhang Fei's official position had been officially approved, so he had to be promoted ahead of schedule.

Since some of the four generals had already arrived in advance, the subsequent process would also include the process of the other four generals and the four generals, thus avoiding too much fragmentation of the ceremony process.

Not all candidates for other senior generals were present, so some of them were only remote commanders for the time being. Liu Bei would naturally send messengers to deliver the seals and ribbons to them later. Historically, when Liu Bei was named King of Hanzhong, Guan Yu was also alone in Jingzhou, and Liu Bei asked Fei Shi to deliver the seal and ribbon of the former general to Guan Yu.

In this life, Zhao Yun, Taishi Ci and others are not here, so if they are to be responsible for the defense of the north, they can only lead it remotely as usual.

In the end, Zhao Yun was made the General of the Left, Taishi Ci was made the General of the Eastern Expedition, and Gan Ning was made the General of the Western Expedition. Each of these people also served as the Defense Commissioner of a state (this position was established in Chapter 430 in order to split the power of the governors in the local areas).
Among these three people, Zhao Yun is theoretically on the same level as Zhang Fei, but in fact Zhang Fei's golden seal was sent directly by the emperor from Xudu, while Zhao Yun's was cast by Liu Bei himself, so there is still a slight difference in the value of their titles.

Guan Yu and Zhang Fei's strengths were recognized by both the enemy and us, while Zhao Yun, Taishi Ci and Gan Ning were recognized only by our own side. After the four generals, the appointment of other high-ranking civil officials was announced.

Zhuge Liang was appointed as the Minister of the Chancellery and Chen Deng was appointed as the Palace Attendant.

Mi Zhu was appointed as the Minister of Agriculture and Lu Su as the Minister of the Imperial Household.

Among the nine ministers, Liu Bei's army only touched these two positions this time, and did not touch the other six positions except the Zong Bo. This was also to avoid offending too many loyal Han officials in the Xudu court, so as to unite more forces.

However, most of the Nine Ministers are now positions for honors, and their actual power is not as great as before.

Compared with the Nine Ministers, the important officials of the General of Chariots and Cavalry's Mansion vacated after the promotion of Zhuge Jin and Zhuge Liang, and the core officials of the Grand Marshal's Mansion after Liu Bei took on the role of Grand Marshal, are the positions that will truly hold power and do things in the future.

So Pang Tong was appointed as the Chief Clerk of the Grand Marshal's Office, Xu Shu as the Chief Clerk of the General of Chariots and Cavalry's Office, Sun Qian as the Sima of the General of Chariots and Cavalry's Office, and Chen Qun as the Attendant of the General of Chariots and Cavalry's Office.

Jian Yong was the Taizhong Daifu, and Sun Shao was the Dahonglu Cheng.

The rest of the civil officials below Gu Yong were adjusted to positions such as prefects of various counties, provincial governors, and inspectors, so it is impossible to list them all.

After promoting and rewarding the civil officials, Liu Bei asked people to continue reading out the military ranks of the generals and those below the rank of generals.

Liu Bei was not too greedy. He also took into consideration the generals below. Their merits and status were quite different from the top "Five Tiger Generals" and they came late, so he left the positions of the four towns vacant and did not appoint any of them.

This is also to ensure that there will be more positions for promotions for new meritorious generals in future battles against Cao Cao. Otherwise, if they are promoted too high at once, there will be no room for promotion in the future.

Chen Dao, Ma Chao, Zhang Liao, and Gao Shun were given the positions of General Pingdong, General Pingxi, General Pingbei, and General Pingnan respectively. Among these four, Ma Chao, Zhang Liao, and Gao Shun were obviously stronger in terms of ability, but they came later and were not as old as Chen Dao.

Moreover, Chen Dao made many contributions in the battle of Xuzhou with Cao Cao's army, and he also followed Zhou Yu to Jizhou and Bohai County to win several battles. Therefore, the final result of the weighing was that these three people were rated at the same level.

Zhou Yu was named General of Andong, and Bu Zhi was named General of Annan. Of the two, Zhou Yu shouldn't have been promoted so quickly based on merit alone, but when Zhou Yu surrendered, he was considered "leading troops into the group" like Ma Chao, so he had some capital bonus, so he was eventually promoted to the same level.

Lu Yi was appointed General Henghai and Wei Yan was appointed General Jianwei.

The rest were various lieutenant generals, lieutenants, and colonels, too numerous to count.

In addition, in addition to the direct troops under Liu Bei's command, Liu Bei also requested promotions for the generals of other allied princes. After all, Liu Biao, Liu Zhang, and Yuan Tan now nominally respected Liu Bei, and Liu Bei could not eat alone and occupy all the official positions.

Therefore, Liu Biao, who had served as the General of Zhennan for many years, was also promoted by Liu Bei to the position of General of the Front. When Liu Bei appointed four generals just now, he only let Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun occupy the left and right positions, leaving the front and back free, just to appease his allies.

After all, the current situation is very different from the historical situation when Liu Bei was crowned King of Hanzhong eleven years later. The other allied princes still exist and must share more benefits.

Liu Biao had already been promoted to General of the Front, and since Yuan Tan had actively submitted his memorials and focused on currying favor with Uncle Liu, of course he had to be recognized, so he was promoted to General of the Rear.

Liu Zhang's status was one level lower than these two, as General of the Southern Expedition. This was reasonable, because the title of General Liu Zhang originally received from Cao Cao was much lower than that of Liu Biao.

After all, Liu Biao was the first generation of princes sent directly to Jingzhou by the imperial court, and Liu Zhang was only recommended to the throne by the civil and military officials of Yizhou. The person directly canonized by the imperial court was Liu Zhang's father Liu Yan.

Therefore, Liu Zhang has always been "powerful but of low status". This time, he is still one level lower than Liu Biao and Yuan Tan, so he can't say anything.

Finally, Liu Bei did not forget his elder nephew Liu Qi from his brother Jingsheng's family, as well as Huang Zhong and Huo Jun who had joined Liu Qi in the battle.

Liu Qi was given the title of General Anxi by Liu Bei.

When Huang Zhong was originally under Liu Biao, he was already a General of the Central Army. The next step up was to a General of the Armies, and the next step up was to a General of Miscellaneous Titles.

Given Liu Bei's generosity, since Huang Zhong came to help in the battle and had made contributions, it would be a bit petty to promote him to the rank of General of Miscellaneous Titles, and he would be called General of Strong Crossbows.

Some of the other trusted civil and military officials of Liu Biao, Yuan Tan, and Liu Zhang, who were allies of Liu Bei, were also listed. However, Liu Bei did not need to issue seals to these people, as the various princes cast their own seals.

After a series of tedious operations, the promotion of civil and military officials in Liu Bei's army, which had been delayed for many years, was finally completed in one go, and everyone's worries about not being promoted for many years were put to rest.

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PS: Sorry, I have to review some daily records today. I have accumulated a lot of things that I haven't explained yet, which is a bit trivial.

There may be omissions or oversights. Please point them out and I can correct them.

Tomorrow we will enter a new strategy and domestic affairs plot.

(End of this chapter)