Three Kingdoms: I am not Liu Bian

Chapter 256 The Emperor's Death Threat!
On the eighth day of the first month of the first year of the Han Dynasty, the New Year's Day holiday came to an end.

As the New Year's holiday came to an end, a series of memorials impeaching Minister of the Imperial Household Department Tian Fen, Grand Tutor Lu Zhi, Minister of Works Liu Yan, and Minister of Ceremonies Zheng Xuan were delivered to the Yuntai Pavilion.

Liu Bian didn't bother to pay attention. Anyway, it wasn't the day of the grand court assembly on the first day of the second month, so he stayed in the Yuntai Pavilion to work, and the transmission of memorials was handled by the eunuchs.

As for the impeachment memorials, the scribes were responsible for classifying and organizing them, while the eunuchs placed them all in a wooden box.

Currently, apart from the impeachment memorial submitted by Han Rong, a scholar of the Five Classics, all other memorials submitted by Liu Bian have been read but not replied to. Hmm... they are being kept in the archives and not sent out.

On the first day of the new court session, Liu Bian was able to sense the difference between the new institution of the Attendant-in-Ordinary and the previous Crown Prince's Palace.

Perhaps it was because of the fact that all the affairs of the various parties were categorized and assigned, or perhaps it was the motivation that the new dynasty brought to these former officials of the Crown Prince's residence, or perhaps it was because they knew that serving as a court attendant meant becoming a confidant of the emperor and having a bright future.

Perhaps due to a variety of factors, the extraordinary enthusiasm of these close advisors made the Office of the Attendant-in-Ordinary exceptionally efficient.

Of course, there were also some lazybones, such as one scoundrel waiter who chose to use his leave to go on a spring outing.

Liu Bian, holding a lacquered bamboo brush with purple bristles, finished reviewing a memorial and handed it to Lü Qiang, who was standing beside him. He then looked up at Jia Xu, who was bowing in greeting below the hall, and said, "You mean you want to ask me for leave on the first day of court? Are you going back to Wuwei County to visit your family?"

"No, my parents have long since passed away. I only have my elder brother Jia Cai and one other relative. My brother is currently serving as the military supervisor of Baideng in Yanmen County, so naturally he has no need to return to Wuwei County." Jia Xu spoke nonsense with a straight face, making Liu Bian barely suppress the urge to throw the ink-stained bamboo brush in his hand at his face. He continued, "I have heard that Liang County is under the jurisdiction of the Governor of Henan Province. It is 130 li from Luoyang. The scenery there is beautiful, with forests and gardens, as well as hot springs. Therefore, I would like to take my wife and children to enjoy the spring."

Liu Bian had a few faint blue veins bulging on his forehead, but he still maintained the demeanor of an emperor and forced a smile, saying, "I remember that the forest garden outside Liang County is a royal forbidden garden, and that hot spring is also within the forbidden garden. How could Wenhe possibly enter?"

"Therefore, while I request leave from the state to take my leave, I also wish to ask the Emperor for a decree, hoping that the state will grant me permission, considering that I have served as the Governor of Henan for two years but have not yet visited this place for spring outings?"

Jia Xu slightly raised his head and met the gaze of the emperor who was about to fly into a rage. He seemed to think there was nothing wrong with his request, which made Hu Zhao, Mao Jie, Yi Ji, Sun Shao, and Du Xi, who were serving the emperor for the first time, look at the emperor and his minister with some fear.

The officials of the Crown Prince's office, who were familiar with the Emperor and Jia Xu's personalities, merely raised their heads and then continued with their official duties for the day.

The preparations for the enthronement ceremony and the five-day New Year celebrations, while not exactly a mountain of official business, still left one feeling overwhelmed.

However, the thought of their future prospects in the Imperial Secretariat gave them a renewed burst of energy, and they threw themselves back into their official duties.

As for the emperor and Jia Xu?
Ah, the emperor and Jia Xu have been arguing countless times.

For the emperor, the closer the person is, the less taboo there is in what they say.

When Lu Zhi was still the tutor of the crown prince, the emperor had called him a "country bumpkin" no less than four times, and said at least six times that he would kill Lu Zhi sooner or later.

Tian Feng was also threatened by the emperor three times that he would be killed sooner or later.

Well, sometimes the emperor is quite like a rogue.

If you say something that displeases him, he'll threaten to make things difficult for you, and if you really anger him, he'll say he'll kill you.

However, the emperor never carried out his "death threat," nor did he hold a grudge overnight.

Basically, the next morning when you have breakfast together, the emperor will smile and bring you a meal you like to apologize, frankly admitting his mistake and patting you on the shoulder with a smile, telling you not to take it to heart.

The longest the emperor was angry was when Lu Zhi reported to the Empress Dowager after the Yellow Turban Rebellion that the emperor, who was still the crown prince at the time, had an improper relationship with a dancer. The emperor was so angry that he didn't say a word to Lu Zhi for the entire day.

After Lu Zhi finished his official duties for the day, he humbled himself and said a few words to the emperor, giving him a way out. That very evening, the emperor held another banquet and invited the officials of the Crown Prince's residence to a feast. He even danced with Lu Zhi, once again displaying the intimate relationship between teacher and student.

Although the emperor admitted his mistakes each time and said that he would not get angry because of advice next time, he always lost his temper with his ministers again and again.

He humbly accepts criticism but never corrects his mistakes.

However, if the emperor says he wants to reward you, then it must be true!

Moreover, the rewards were not kept overnight; if someone forgot due to being busy with official duties, they would be compensated double!
Liu Bian was furious. He had given Liu Bian five days off for the New Year holiday, and now Liu Bian was asking for another ten days off to go to the hot springs.

Do you want to go soak in my royal gardens?
While Yi Ji, Hu Zhao, and the others were handling official business with their heads down, they noticed that the emperor did not seem as easygoing as his predecessors had described. He actually picked up the three-legged Yishui inkstone, which was shaped like a small tripod, and was about to smash it at Jia Xu.

Jia Xu neither dodged nor avoided the attack, but the emperor seemed unwilling to part with the fine Yishui inkstone, whether because he was reluctant to part with the person or the inkstone itself.

But Liu Bian felt so angry that he had nowhere to vent, so he grabbed a blank bamboo slip from the wooden shelf next to the table and threw it at Jia Xu.

With a casual gesture, Jia Xu, being a proper Liangzhou native, displayed some martial arts skills, rendering this "treasure" virtually powerless.

"Damn it, I've been a prince for almost fourteen years and I've never been there. No... I'm not going to give you an imperial decree. Get out of here right now!"

"Thank you for the holiday granted by the nation!" After expressing his gratitude, Jia Xu casually placed the blank bamboo scroll on Zhong Yao's desk, quickly walked out of the palace, and immediately ran towards the location where the carriage was parked. He then personally took the driver's seat and drove out of the palace.

Liu Bian looked blankly at the people below the hall, then looked at Gao Wang with surprise and asked, "Did I just grant him leave?"

Gao Wang hesitated for a moment before replying, "I don't think so?"

Even Gao Wang was starting to lose confidence. Logically, he shouldn't have misremembered the details of the emperor's life, but the consistency of Jia Xu's departure made both of them wonder if they had misremembered.

Liu Bian grew angrier the more he thought about it, and decided to teach Jia Xu a lesson.

They couldn't bear to punish him severely, and a minor punishment would be dismissal from office. But Jia Xu was the kind of person who could laugh the moment he was dismissed from office, and then happily take the rewards he had received over the past two years back to his hometown of Guzang to retire to the countryside.

Faced with such a slippery fellow as Jia Xu, Liu Bian was truly at a loss, and even more so, at a loss for temper.

In the end, Jia Xu practically showed off his god-like driving skills as the Governor of Henan, taking his family thirty miles out of the city to rest, when they were overtaken by ten knights from the Right Guard Battalion who had rushed over.

The head sergeant handed the imperial axe, which was kept in a wooden box, to Jia Xu, explaining that it was really inappropriate for the emperor to allow outsiders to enter the forbidden garden to soak in the hot springs. Therefore, Liu Bian gave Jia Xu a nominal task.

So he simply gave Jia Xu a few months' leave, allowing him to take a spring outing and, along the way, send people to measure the amount of land occupied by the royal forbidden gardens outside the eight passes of Luoyang but within the jurisdiction of the Governor of Henan.

Since the establishment of the Later Han Dynasty, many fertile fields in the Three Rivers region have been occupied by the royal family and turned into imperial gardens. Therefore, it is planned to release most of the land in the imperial gardens as official land for future reward to meritorious soldiers for cultivation.

Of course, nominally it was because the emperor disliked Jia Xu and didn't want this guy to play around on the road, but in reality, this job was not difficult at all.

Since the measurement of the forbidden garden did not require Jia Xu to go down to the ground to investigate, Guo Sheng, a veteran eunuch, would accompany Jia Xu and act as the actual executor of the measurement.

It was simply because Guo Sheng was not in a position to do many things openly, so he needed Jia Xu to provide cover, and then this incident gave Jia Xu a pretext to freely enter the Forbidden Garden for the first time.

As for soaking in hot springs, Guo Sheng had already seen through it all; who could possibly not understand what that meant?
However, it is said that when the Right Guard Cavalry delivered the Emperor's edict, they said something other than measuring the land.

Hmm... As for the specifics, the ten Right Guard soldiers remained silent after returning, but it's not hard to guess that they must have used some pretty foul language.

However, Jia Xu's request for leave did inspire him. It wasn't about enjoying the spring outing, but rather about solving the problem of many officers and soldiers from Liangzhou, Bingzhou, Yangzhou, and other places far from Luoyang visiting their families.

The lower and middle-ranking soldiers were alright; most of them were from good families in Sanhe and Sanfu, and they had also been granted land in Sanhe, so it was convenient for them to visit their relatives.

The main group consisted of soldiers from Liangzhou and Yangzhou who had not yet had the chance to relocate, as well as a small number from Xuzhou, Youzhou, and Jizhou.

These were mostly personal guards of generals, colonels, and military commanders who followed their former masters to Luoyang and joined the central army through selection.

The problem many people face is that only their wives and children are willing to move to Sanhe, while their parents are unwilling to leave their hometown.

Do not underestimate the attachment to one's hometown in this era. Many people's parents are unwilling to leave the fields they have cultivated for most of their lives, and even more unwilling to waste the fields and houses in their hometown. Therefore, they are unwilling to come to Sanhe with their children and grandchildren.

Liu Bian did not consider this issue.

In fact, apart from holidays and other holidays, the military already has leave for visiting relatives. However, the time allotted for returning home is limited, often not enough for soldiers living far away to make a round trip, which renders the leave for visiting relatives virtually meaningless.

Therefore, the emperor allowed officers and soldiers who were not from Sanhe to take paid leave to visit their families. Based on the travel time from their place of origin to Luoyang, soldiers were given at least ten days to spend with their families at home. They were entitled to three leave to return home each year, but they had to take turns going home. If there was a combat order, they had to return to the army immediately without delay.

In addition, Liu Bian ordered Chai Yu, the newly appointed Shangfang Commander, to take brocade and silk from the Shangfang's brocade and silk inventory for officers and soldiers who lived far from home. He allocated the quality and quantity of brocade and silk according to the officers' ranks and prepared an extra gift for all soldiers, so that they could either bring it home themselves or send it to their parents through a postman.

Sun Jian, Yan Xing, Han Sui, and other generals who were preparing to return to their hometowns all said that they had already received many rewards from the emperor and that their homes were full of brocade and silk, so they did not need any more favors from the emperor.

The lower-ranking soldiers also expressed that in addition to the rewards for their military achievements, the emperor had also bestowed generous New Year's Day gifts. Even the most ordinary soldiers received a reward of 3000 coins, equivalent to a year's food expenses for their entire family. They were still getting used to the battle formations and commands of the central army and were too ashamed to accept such a large reward.

However, Liu Bian stated that the reward for their meritorious service was a reward for their outstanding performance on the battlefield, the New Year's Day reward was for the New Year festival, and what was being bestowed now was a gift to express gratitude to their parents, who were far away, for raising loyal and brave officers and soldiers for the Han Dynasty.

Finally, the Emperor reiterated his hope that the officers and soldiers of the Central Army would move their families to the Sanhe region as soon as possible. The court had prepared houses and fields for them and would also provide them with tax reductions and exemptions. Now they were just waiting for them to sign and hand over the documents.

The officers and soldiers of the central army were extremely grateful for the rewards, land grants, additional houses, and gifts. Therefore, when the good families of Sanhe, who constituted the main body of the army, returned from visiting their hometowns, they helped the central army with training and drills. Huangfu Song and Dong Zhuo watched the soldiers with unprecedented enthusiasm for training and couldn't help but fall silent.

If this level of enthusiasm for training continues, it would probably take at most a year and a half to restore the former sharpness of the five Northern Army Schools, and two and a half years to build an even more elite force than the five Northern Army Schools.

After a long silence, Dong Zhuo laughed and said, "The Emperor is a man who understands military affairs!"

Huangfu Song smiled wryly and expressed his approval.

(4036 words)
(End of this chapter)