Jinting Han people

Although Liu Xian had already issued the order for the eastern expedition and intended to send troops as soon as possible, the situation was different now. As his territory expanded and his adversaries grew stronger, he could no longer mobilize a large army as he had in the past. He had to deal with domestic affairs first and ensure stability in the rear.

This is like a gambler. When young and poor, they can gamble away fortunes, but once they've built a fortune, they become extremely calculating. Wasn't Emperor Gaozu (Liu Bang) like that? When he was a village head, he could attend a banquet hosted by the Lü family without batting an eye and congratulate them on receiving ten thousand coins. But after becoming emperor, to maintain the stability of the state, this Emperor Gaozu dared not go against the will of the people and had to abandon his beloved Consort Qi and her son, instead relinquishing power to Empress Lü and Emperor Hui.

Liu Xian is in the same boat now. Regardless of the outcome of this eastern expedition, the political order within Bashu is the top priority. Especially now that the eastward strategy is to fight a slow and steady battle, it requires the rear to provide stable and sustained logistical support. He has to be cautious and arrange political affairs from the perspective of overall planning.

So, two days after the decision was made to launch the eastern expedition, at dusk, Liu Xian, disguised as a commoner, went to visit Lu Zhi with only five guards.

Lu Zhi's residence was located in the northwest corner of Chengdu, very close to Wudan Palace. As mentioned earlier, this residence was personally supervised by Liu Xian and built specifically to welcome Lu Zhi. Its scale was not large, similar to the Anle Duke's residence in Luoyang, but the materials and craftsmanship used were among the best in Sichuan.

Its beams were made of century-old boxwood, the walls were entirely made of blue bricks, and the tiles were glazed. Stone steps paved the paths. Within the mansion, there were three pavilions, a small lake, and two terraces, planted with peach, plum, apricot, and other trees. The stone platforms were carved with various tales of virtuous people, making it extremely elegant. Everyone could see Liu Xian's high regard for Lu Zhi. Because Liu Xian had given Lu Zhi a peacock, the locals called the mansion Peacock Pond.

When Liu Xian came to visit, it was almost dusk. The guards all recognized him, and seeing the Prince of Han arrive, they quickly welcomed him into the mansion and went to announce his arrival. Lu Zhi was having dinner with his wife and children at the time. Upon hearing the news, he didn't even bother to put on his hat, but instead put on his wooden clogs and hurried out to greet him, immediately bowing to Liu Xian.

Liu Xian quickly helped him up and said with a smile, "They say a guest should follow the host's lead. Today you are the host and I am the guest. I should be the one bowing to you."

Lu Zhize solemnly said, "Your Highness, please do not make such a joke. Power and authority are the strength of a ruler, and Your Highness should not treat them lightly."

Liu Xian smiled upon hearing this and, without arguing with Lu Zhi, led him into the main hall. Lu Zhi's wife, Cui, and their five children were all present, bowing respectfully to Liu Xian. Liu Xian recognized them, especially Lu Zhi's eldest son, Lu Chen, with whom he had interacted many times before and had a deep impression of him. He exchanged a few pleasantries, inquiring whether Lu Zhi was accustomed to the food and climate of Sichuan. However, the Lu family was unprepared for the Prince of Han's sudden visit and were quite nervous, clearly not feeling Liu Xian's concern.

But Lu Zhi knew that the Prince of Han must have come to discuss something he couldn't say openly. So he remained calm, casually made up an excuse to admire the paintings, and led the Prince of Han into the study, instructing his wife to bring up two bowls of lotus seed soup to cool him down.

As a member of a prominent family in Hebei, Lu Zhi's collection indeed included many famous paintings. As soon as Liu Xian entered the pavilion, he saw a painting on the wall titled "King Mu's Banquet at Yaochi," which depicted the meeting between the Queen Mother of the West and King Mu of Zhou at Yaochi. Above Yaochi in Kunlun, clouds drifted, and the Queen Mother of the West, adorned with a cloud crown and feathered robes, was surrounded by a retinue of immortals. However, the Queen Mother of the West seemed oblivious to them, her eyes fixed solely on King Mu of Zhou on the mountainside. The two gazed at each other from afar, their eyes filled with affection. The brushstrokes were extremely delicate, and their expressions were thus brought to life.

Upon seeing this, Liu Xian exclaimed repeatedly, "What a fine painting! The lines are as fine as spider silk, and the composition is ingenious. I have seen Cao Buxing's 'Red Dragon Coiling on the Green Stream' before, and the workmanship was exquisite, but it is still inferior to this painting."

Lu Zhi smiled slightly and introduced to Liu Xian: "Your Highness, this is a painting by the painting master Wei Xie. Twenty-six years ago, when my wife and I got married, he gave it to us as a wedding gift."

Upon hearing this, Liu Xian couldn't help but recall that his marriage to A'Luo was also twenty years ago. He sighed, "Time flies! Zidao, tell me, if we had met twenty-six years ago, would the world be at peace now?"

Lu Zhi was taken aback, but seeing the Han King's ambiguous smile, he immediately understood that the Han King was about to entrust him with something. He immediately expressed his feelings and said, "Please rest assured, Your Highness, I will follow you now. In just ten years, I will also bring peace to the world."

Sure enough, Liu Xian's smile grew even brighter. He left the painting, took Lu Zhi's hand, and sat back down on the wooden couch. Then he slowly said, "Alright, Zidao. This time when I go east, I plan to hand over the affairs of Chengdu to you. Can you handle it well?"

Even though Lu Zhi was prepared, he couldn't help but feel excited. He suppressed his excitement and said in a deep voice, "Lu Zhi dares not fail to do his utmost!"

Since Lu Zhi entered Shu last year, he has been deeply involved in court politics and has implemented new policies and reforms in response to many of Liu Xian's demands. These can be mainly divided into three points, all of which have won Liu Xian's appreciation:
The first new policy was to rebuild the Imperial Academy and the National Academy.

This addresses Liu Xian's persistent concern about the implementation of the new laws. Lu Zhi believes that the reason Liu Xian's previous efforts to promote the laws were ineffective was mainly because the laws in Shu had long been lenient, making it difficult to gain popular support through forceful means in a short period. Therefore, it would be better to take a long-term approach, starting with changing customs and practices within the officialdom.

The officialdom found it difficult to support the *Ziya Lü* (a new set of laws), for two main reasons: first, the new laws were indeed quite complex, and officials were too busy with official duties to study them; second, the new laws were too harsh, failing to benefit scholars and thus lacking motivation. These two points hindered its implementation. However, by rebuilding the Imperial Academy and the National Academy and incorporating the *Ziya Lü* into the examinations for the *archery and classics*, these two contradictions could be resolved.

In this way, the newly trained students of the Imperial Academy gained a path to advancement and naturally studied the new laws diligently. After passing the examinations, the court also had talent capable of promoting the new laws. Once they took office, local officials, through their exposure, would also feel the court's determination to promote the new laws, and the common people would also gain an understanding of them. Like a gentle rain nourishing the earth, over time, the new laws would unknowingly take root in people's hearts.

Lu Zhi's second new policy was to implement the Mutual Aid Act.

This originated from the Three Mutual Selection Method used in the selection of officials during the Later Han Dynasty. During the Later Han period, because emperors often died young and could not personally govern, and the power of local governors was too great, a situation eventually arose where the powerful aristocratic families became uncontrollable. Emperor Huan of Han, deeply feeling the weakness of imperial power during the first period of the Partisan Prohibitions, promulgated the Three Mutual Selection Method.

The so-called "Three Mutuals" method actually refers to three types of avoidance: avoidance based on place of origin, avoidance based on marriage, and avoidance based on official position. In simpler terms, from prefects and governors down to county magistrates, there were three types of people who could not be appointed: first, local scholars; second, scholars with marriage ties to local gentry families; and third, local scholars who held official positions in the other's hometown.

With these three avoidances in place, local officials had no clansmen or relatives in their localities, making it difficult for them to engage in clandestine official transactions. This ensured that local scholars were unlikely to disobey the central government's orders. Therefore, during the warlord era at the end of the Han Dynasty, the prefectural and county officials were not from their local area. Cao Cao's ability to control the emperor and command the other warlords enabled him to rally the scholars in response.

After the establishment of the Cao Wei dynasty, the Three Mutuals Law was abolished, allowing the aristocratic clans to rise uncontrollably. This not only made it difficult for the state to control local household registrations but also fostered intricate power networks through intermarriage within the officialdom. Although Lu Zhi came from a prominent family in Hebei, his family had always advocated for enlightened governance and benevolence towards the people. Allowing the aristocratic clans to expand unchecked would lead to a breakdown in the relationship between ruler and subject, with relatives concealing each other's faults—a situation detrimental to the nation. Therefore, suppressing local power again was imperative.

However, it is impossible to fully implement the Three Mutuals system at present. Eighty years later, intermarriage among the aristocratic families has become a fait accompli and cannot be changed. If the so-called avoidance of kinship is to be implemented, there will probably be no officials available. Therefore, he advocates changing the Three Mutuals system to Two Mutuals system, at least first implementing avoidance based on place of origin and avoidance based on official appointment, in order to revitalize imperial power.

Lu Zhi's third new policy was to implement the nine-class examination system.

This was a completely new method for evaluating bureaucrats. After Lu Zhi arrived at the Chengdu court, he discovered that Liu Xian had not yet established a formal evaluation system, which was undoubtedly unacceptable. Therefore, he immediately suggested to Liu Xian that this matter be institutionalized to ensure that officials could make informed decisions.

Lu Zhi did not apply the existing performance evaluation system for officials in the Jin Dynasty. The reason was simple: the performance evaluation system in the Jin Dynasty was a complete mess. It could even be said that the Jin Dynasty's officialdom did not consider performance evaluation at all. Compared with actual achievements, the Jin Dynasty's officialdom valued seniority more, that is, how many official positions one had held. The more official positions one held, the higher one's seniority, and the easier it was to be promoted.

The principle behind this is simple: the more official positions a person has held, the broader their knowledge, the more experienced they are, and the stronger their abilities. However, the reality is quite different. Once this system is established, officials seeking promotion are keen on lateral transfers, staying in each position for less than six months before moving to a new one. This prevents most officials from achieving any real results, instead wasting time on meaningless transfers. Those who truly get things done, like Liu Xian in Xiayang, were delayed in promotion simply because their seniority was insufficient.

The nine-shift system that Lu Zhi now advocates is to completely abolish this position-based system and conduct assessments from three dimensions: attendance, attendance, and performance.

Attendance was the simplest measure. In the Jin Dynasty, many officials neglected their duties, often missing five or six days out of ten. To eradicate this trend, Lu Zhi implemented an attendance system in all government offices. Those who were absent without cause for more than thirty days a year would be classified as lower-ranking officials; those absent for less than thirty days would be classified as middle-ranking officials; and those with no absences would be classified as upper-ranking officials.

Secondly, there was the examination of integrity, which involved assessing the officials' level of honesty. Since the Cao Wei dynasty, the concept of corruption in officialdom had become nonexistent. Consequently, the embezzlement of public funds and the exploitation of the people had become rampant among officials, and bribery was commonplace. However, Lu Zhi deeply abhorred this. He established regulations that those who embezzled public funds were classified as low-ranking officials, those who had other sources of income besides their official salary were classified as middle-ranking officials, and those who relied solely on their official salary were classified as high-ranking officials.

Finally, there was the performance evaluation, which was to examine the officials' actual work. Lu Zhi divided officials into fifteen categories, such as remonstrance officials, judges, military officers, educational officials, market officials, historians, garrison officials, medical officials, selection officials, and inspection officials. Each category had different performance evaluation standards. Finally, the performance of local officials was comprehensively determined and collectively referred to as the "Fifteen Virtues".

Based on this assessment method, Lu Zhi divided officials' performance into nine classes. Those in the bottom three classes were demoted or even punished; those in the middle three classes were transferred or placed on probation; and those in the top three classes were promoted.

It must be said that the three new policies implemented by Lu Zhi were very much to Liu Xian's liking. These were all deep-seated problems he had witnessed in the Jin Dynasty's officialdom, problems he had always wanted to solve, but he only had general ideas about how to form a new system, without concrete plans. Moreover, most of the people around Liu Xian were talented in military strategy or civil administration, and few possessed such insightful wisdom. Now that Lu Zhi was in charge of the new policies, many problems were readily solved.

After the new policies were implemented, although there were some complaints and resistance from both the court and the public, the atmosphere of the entire Sichuan officialdom was greatly improved within a year. Both efficiency and integrity were significantly better than before. Many reclusive scholars from Sichuan praised the new dynasty, saying that the country had a new look. For example, renowned scholars like Gong Zhuang and Qiao Xiu, who had previously refused official appointments, now accepted invitations from the Imperial Academy to come to Chengdu to serve as professors, lecturing and teaching, leading to a surge in academic activity. Some common people even said that the current political climate was comparable to that of the time of Zhuge Liang.

This eastern expedition to Jingzhou comes at a crucial time for the implementation of the new policies, especially with the first national assessment underway. Liu Xian did not want any unforeseen events to disrupt the new policies. Therefore, Liu Xian planned to entrust important affairs of state to Lu Zhi during the eastern expedition, striving to ensure the smooth implementation of the new policies.

He confided to Lu Zhi, "This time, I will be accompanied not only by the two commanders Yang Nandi and Zhang Guang, but also by the Minister of the Imperial Secretariat (Li Ju), the Grand Secretary (Li Sheng), the Grand Commandant (He Pan), as well as Li Feng and Lu Yun. They will all be traveling east with the army. I will entrust you and Yue Shi to oversee all the important affairs of the court, including those in the north and Ningzhou."

Liu Xian's arrangement was undeniably meticulous. The fact that so many important figures accompanied him eastward was ostensibly justifiable, demonstrating the certainty of the conquest of Jingzhou. However, the actual effect was that the Chengdu court was practically empty, with almost no one able to challenge Lu Zhi. The only remaining elder statesman, Liu Kun, the Commandant of the Capital Region who co-ruled with Lu Zhi, was also Lu Zhi's brother-in-law. With Liu Kun's help in cultivating relationships, Lu Zhi's position could be greatly stabilized, reducing obstacles to his governance.

However, this matter was not suitable to be discussed in the court or the palace, so Liu Xian made a special trip to Lu Zhi's residence to meet with him and hand over the matter, expressing his determination.

Lu Zhi naturally understood the deeper meaning behind it and was deeply moved. He took the initiative to ask Liu Xian for permission, saying, "Your Highness, I have a request that you would be grateful for."

This was the first time Lu Zhi had taken the initiative to make a request to Liu Xian. Liu Xian asked in surprise, "Oh? Zidao, please speak freely."

Lu Zhi cupped his hands and said, "Your Highness, my eldest son (Lu Chen) is rudimentary in both literature and military affairs. I hope Your Highness will recruit him into the Imperial Guard so that he may contribute his modest efforts to the Eastern Expedition."

Liu Xian and Lu Zhi exchanged a glance, and Liu Xian immediately understood Lu Zhi's intention. Lu Zhi was proud and didn't want to be criticized for gaining favor by flattering the emperor, so he tried to have his eldest son join the army to prove that he was truly impartial. Liu Xian understood his feelings and, after thinking for a moment, nodded in agreement, "Alright, I'll make Ziliang a military supervisor."

"Thank you for your kindness, Your Highness."

Next, the two briefly rehearsed the next phase of the eastern expedition, discussing the different possible scenarios under various battle conditions and the best strategies for the Han army based on the available intelligence. They talked animatedly while studying the map, completely absorbed and unable to stop. Time flew by unnoticed until a guard urged Liu Xian to return to the palace, at which point they realized two hours had already passed.

Lu Zhi immediately saw Liu Xian off at the mansion. After watching Liu Xian's figure disappear into the moonlight, he remained standing there, gazing up at the hazy stars and moon in the sky, standing there for a long time. (End of Chapter)