Chinese New Year

Chapter 549 Manifesto
The letter was quickly presented.

Shao Xun took out the letter, opened it and read it, then said with a smile, "This is Liu Yao setting a trap for me at the order of Liu Cong."

After saying that, he handed it to Lu Zhi.

Lu Zhi took it curiously. At first, it was okay. But when he saw that Liu Cong and Shao Xun were "Emperor of the West" and "Emperor of the East" respectively, and the two emperors stood side by side, he raised his eyebrows.

"Where does this letter come from?" he asked.

"Liu Yao sent cavalry to Shexian, Wu'an, Anyang, Linlu and other places, and shot arrows into the city, and many people picked them up." Shao Xun said.

"Wouldn't that mean everyone would know about it?" Lu Zhi cried out.

"Of course everyone knows it." Shao Xun said.

There are so many places, and there must be hundreds of letters shot. It is impossible to intercept them all, and the news will definitely get out.

The letter made it clear that the two sides could "meet for an alliance" in She County, cease fire, and have the Eastern and Western emperors coexist.

The letter also mentioned that upon hearing that Shi Le's wife was captured, Liu Cong offered his clan daughter to him in marriage. If Shao Xun could stop fighting, Liu Cong would marry his sister to him and the two sides would form an eternal alliance.

Of course this is nonsense.

It would be impossible for the Huns to let him take control of Hebei comfortably. They would certainly harass him repeatedly, making the situation in Hebei unstable. The people's hearts would not be stable and their strength could not be mobilized.

The existence of two emperors at the same time only increases his political and moral burden and causes him trouble.

When the Emperor of Luoyang learns of this, he might panic.

When scholars all over the world heard the news, no matter whether he had surrendered to them or not, there would always be subtle changes in their hearts.

His enemies or potential competitors will also use this as an excuse to enhance their own image of greatness and justice and lay a solid foundation for their next move in the future.

boring!

"Mr. Ming, we must treat this matter with caution. If someone copies it and takes it to Luoyang, he will fall into their evil scheme." Lu Zhi said.

"What will happen to the emperor?" Shao Xun stood up, waved his hand to let the messenger leave, and then asked.

Lu Zhi thought for a moment and said, "The emperor will be panicked. I can't predict what will happen. If all else fails, how about asking the general in the palace who is on duty this month to scare him?"

Shao Xun suddenly laughed.

Among all the civil and military officials in the court, Lu Zhi was probably one of the most rude to the emperor. He threatened and abused the emperor at every turn, and the historians recorded it in the official records. Thousands of years later, no one knew how future generations would view it, but he didn't seem to care much.

"Let the emperor do whatever he wants." Shao Xun said helplessly, "I won't provoke him."

Upon hearing this, Lu Zhi immediately asked, "Are you planning to build a Bafu?"

Shao Xun probed, "If I build a hegemony mansion, will it work?"

Lu Zhi frowned and thought, while Shao Xun waited patiently.

After waiting for a long time, Lu Zhi shook his head and said, "I don't know either."

Shao Xun was speechless.

But he also knew that what Lu Zhi said was true. Everyone knew that Shao had defeated Shi Le, captured Yecheng, and eleven counties and kingdoms in Hebei successively came to him, which was a great achievement. But could this achievement support him to establish a hegemony? No one knew.

"If it really doesn't work, let's give it a try." Lu Zhi came up with an idea.

"What kind of test?"

"Your Excellency can issue a proclamation to the world, boasting about your military achievements and listing your civil governance. Then find a few people to start praising you and attract everyone's attention. When the time is right, you can let Wang Yifu come forward..." Lu Zhi explained in detail.

This is what he is good at, packaging his character.

"A manifesto?"

"It's just right to deal with this matter, respond to Liu Cong and Liu Yao, and let the world see it at the same time." Lu Zhi thought.

Shao Xun walked around the room with his hands behind his back, thinking quietly.

Lu Zhi and the other man looked at each other, their drunkenness suddenly disappeared, and their expressions became a little excited.

When attacking Ye City a few months ago, Lord Chen mentioned in public that "the mountains and rivers will be eternal, and the barbarians and the Chinese will be at peace", which made the knowledgeable people in the world understand his ambition. If he could take the opportunity to respond to the Xiongnu this time to further increase his influence, it would be a great opportunity, and also a very rare opportunity to test the reaction of the public.

"Well." Shao Xun paused and said, "Zidao, can you write a manifesto for me?"

"Okay." Lu Zhi agreed directly.

Shao Xun clapped his hands and his personal soldiers came up to inquire. After a while, they brought a desk and writing brushes, ink, paper and inkstone.

“I have heard that those who follow the great rule of heaven and earth must respond to the will of heaven; those who enjoy the blessing of their ancestors must follow the will of mankind.”

"Liu Cong was originally a subordinate of the Yingfu government. During his tenure, he pretended to be sincere. After leaving office, he betrayed his kindness and rebelled."

"The Battle of Changping killed our pillars; the Battle of Dayang slaughtered our soldiers."

"The common people have long been trapped in brutality; the old and young in the army are sad and sighing with no way back home."

"In the palace, he killed his brother and usurped the throne; in the harem, he raped his mother."

"This is to go against one's nature and be incompatible with human ethics!"

Having said that, Shao Xun paused and waited for Lu Zhi to finish writing.

Lu Yan watched stupidly from the side. Mr. Chen started scolding people with a lot of tricks and he always tried to expose their scars. How cruel!

Liu Cong's killing of his brother Liu He was indeed a rebellion against his superiors.

He also married his stepmother, Queen Shan, and eventually forced her to commit suicide.

These are all ugly deeds that he cannot bring himself to talk about. Now that they are exposed, won't Liu Cong be furious?

Lu Zhi finished writing quickly, and then thought about how to polish and improve it to form a complete article.

Shao Xun started to speak again: "Shi Le was born a Jie slave, and rose from the green forest. He had the heart of a jackal and was full of evil intentions." "He led a large army to plunder Henan and was cruel in the countryside; he allowed his soldiers to cause chaos in Hebei and acted violently in the cities."

"Within three months of losing my wife, I separated from my husband and married him. I left my mother and traveled over a thousand miles, not caring for her day or night."

"This is disloyalty and unfilial, it's insane!"

Taking advantage of his drunkenness, Lu Zhi kept writing. He not only wrote down all of Shao Xun's words, but also expanded on them a lot.

Lu Yan almost laughed out loud.

Didn't you capture Shi Le's wife? Why are you still saying that he wants to marry a daughter of the Liu clan?

Shi Le's mother was in Shangdang and had not yet been moved there, so he was indeed unable to fulfill his filial duties to her.

Mr. Chen had a sharp tongue. He first talked about Shi Le's early years as a horse thief, then mentioned that he looted Henan and burned mulberry forests and orchards. What he should have said later was that the Jie people looted in cities in Hebei, which Shi Le could not completely ban.

"Liu Yao..." Shao Xun continued to "scold".

Grandfather and grandson Lu Zhi were concentrating very hard, one writing and the other listening.

"…Since the Northern Expedition, the flags and drums have been seen everywhere, and cities have been captured one after another."

"On the banks of the Huan River, the enemy was attacked from both inside and outside, and the criminals were captured in the city."

"Below Yecheng, the enemy was crushed with ease, and the jackals fled into the wild."

"The flag of Orel pointed to Anping, the stronghold was breached, the three armies fought bravely, and the evil spirit was completely dispelled."

"The army in the wilderness must be punished for its crimes. To fight against the rebels in accordance with justice, is it more than just using a sharp blade?"

"I examine my heart during the day and examine myself at night. I know that although the Xiongnu are often defeated, the beacons are still there; even if the Yellow River and Luo River are slightly pacified, the carriages and books are not mixed."

After saying this, Shao Xun paused for a long time.

Lu Zhi and the other two were puzzled at first, but then they thought of something and got goosebumps.

"The road of the Former Qin Dynasty was lost, and the lost deer was hard to chase. The government of the Later Han Dynasty was scattered, and the crows could not stop."

"To defeat the rebels and build a nation, to establish a name for the world, how can we give up halfway? Now we have mobilized 500,000 soldiers from Henan and vowed to quell the evil spirits in She County and eliminate the evil wolves in Ji County."

"Without making extraordinary achievements, how can one receive the reward of super-promotion? This proclamation is published throughout China and abroad so that everyone can know it."

"That's all. Please help me polish and supplement it." Shao Xun said, cupping his hands.

Lu Zhi stood up and returned the greeting, smiling, "Do you really want to write like this, sir?"

"Write it." Shao Xun said, "Now that things have come to this, what can you do to me? The emperor has not yet rewarded me for the previous attack on Ye. This time, I have to give an explanation for driving Liu Yao away."

"Okay." Lu Zhi didn't say much. After sitting down, his ideas flowed like a spring and he wrote as if possessed by God. In an instant, he had finished writing a manifesto and handed it to Shao Xun for review.

Shao Xun took it, read it carefully three times, and said, "Okay."

It’s settled.

If the last time outside Yecheng was to publicize my ambitions, this manifesto went a step further.

Especially the last paragraph, which makes people imagine a lot.

Indeed, the entire manifesto was still written from the perspective of a minister, with the purpose of "defeating the rebels and building the country", "establishing a name to be passed down through the ages", "achieving extraordinary achievements" and "receiving extraordinary rewards".

But when using allusions from the end of the Qin Dynasty and the end of the Han Dynasty, the meaning is slightly different, and those who understand will naturally understand.

Especially since it has only been less than a hundred years since the incident of Cao Mengde, people are particularly sensitive and pay special attention to these things - well, the acceptance level is also higher. After all, the Jin Dynasty only lasted for fifty years. Are there really so many people's hearts and minds?
This is just a test, part of the process of boiling a frog in warm water.

Shao Xun will decide his next move based on everyone's reactions.

After finishing the work on the manifesto, he discussed with Lu Zhi the defense arrangements for Hebei.

At this time, outside the three towers of Yecheng, the army had already begun to change its defenses.

The Nanyang soldiers, the Tuntian Army, and the Luonan men who had experienced the war began to return south to their hometowns, and by the way, they took the more than 30,000 Hu and Han people who were redeemed in Anping to Runan.

Shao Xun had asked Yu Wenjun to select capable people and, using her dowry as a basis, exchange a portion of the land to build a super-large manor and try to settle these more than 30,000 people.

From now on, these people will be his farmhands. They should be honest and farm and graze in Runan. If they are loyal, they will have the opportunity to become civilians in the future.

The Guanxi soldiers could not return home for the time being because a considerable number of them were still fighting with the enemy and could only leave after Liu Yao was driven away.

A total of 30,000 people replaced them. Except for some soldiers from the three counties of Puyang, Dongping and Gaoping and their followers, most of the others were young men from the fortresses in Yu and Yan states.

This is what Shao Xun wanted to discuss with Lu Zhi.

From now until next year and the year after, tens of thousands of Henan soldiers will take turns guarding Hebei, but not all places will have troops stationed.

Of the eleven counties and kingdoms in Hebei that have been occupied so far, Shao Xun will focus on managing the five counties of Ji, Wei, Dunqiu, Guangping and Anping. Wei and Guangping counties in particular were the places where Shi Le had distributed a large amount of land, so the foundations are very good and suitable to be managed as a base.

The three counties of Ji, Dunqiu and Anping have experienced wars many times and there are many unowned lands in the local area. If there is spare capacity in the future, they can also serve as the second batch of basic bases.

The garrisons are mainly located in these places.

As for the other counties and kingdoms, since they have been delegated, you should figure out the solutions on yourselves.

In this matter, Lu Zhi and Yu Chen must work together to ensure that the troops in all counties and towns are trained and have a certain level of self-defense capability.

If there is a major war with the Huns next year, Shao Xun will also want to see their troops.

Of course, he was also mentally prepared for someone to disobey him, so he would just beat them, there was nothing more to say.

On October 25, the vanguard of the Yicong Army, more than 4,000 cavalry, set out from Yecheng and headed towards Wuan and Gushan.

Shao Xun began to reorganize the newly arrived infantry, as well as the troops from Hebei who had arrived one after another. Two days later, he set out to fight, heading for She County.

(Please give me a guaranteed monthly ticket, thank you.)
(End of this chapter)