Three Kingdoms: I switched to Liu Bei, why are you crying, Cao Cao?

Chapter 385 Liu Bei proclaims himself emperor and takes a rest

In the 209th year of Jian'an, that is, in AD, after twelve years of hard struggle, Liu Bei finally wiped out all the princes in the world.

Of course, the twelve years refers to the year when Liu Bei really started his career. In fact, since the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Liu Bei has been ups and downs for twenty-five years.

After twenty-five years of vicissitudes, Liu Bei went from being a mat weaver and shoe seller to supporting the Han Dynasty. The bitter years in between are not worth mentioning to outsiders.

In short, since Liu Bei returned to the court, the atmosphere of the entire court began to become somewhat subtle. It was not like the court struggles when Cao Cao was in power, but there was an undercurrent that seemed to be pushing him towards the supreme position.

Things started in March. Emperor Xian of Han, Liu Xie, summoned Liu Bei to the palace many times to discuss the matter of abdication. He said to Liu Bei:
"I have been in office for nearly twenty years, and the world has been in turmoil. Fortunately, thanks to the spirits of my ancestors, I have been able to survive from danger. I have the King of Han to revive the Yan and Han dynasties. This shows that the destiny is coming to me."

"When the great way is practiced, the world is for all. Tang Yao was not partial to his son, but his name spread far and wide. I secretly admire him. Now he is following Yao's example and abdicating the throne to the King of Han. The King should not refuse!"

Liu Xie had originally planned the abdication six years ago, but Liu Bei did not accept it at that time. Since then, Liu Xie lived as a puppet for six years.

This puppet is even worse than the one during the time of Cao Cao, because Cao Cao previously controlled the government and at least followed Liu Xie's edicts.

But it was not the case after Liu Bei was crowned king. All affairs in the world were controlled by Qin Zhen. After reporting to Liu Bei, they would be handed over to Liu Xie for review. He did not even have the power to sign.

This is also the biggest difference between the Three Provinces and Six Ministries System and the Three Dukes and Nine Ministers. Although the Three Provinces and Six Ministries System dispersed the power of the prime minister, it consolidated the imperial power.

But whoever holds this power, that person holds the power of the world. Therefore, Liu Bei became the actual controller of the Han Dynasty, and Liu Xie became a complete figurehead.

However, Liu Xie was not as resentful about this as before, because he had already given in once. The government was controlled by Liu Bei, and he was happy to have some free time.

But six years passed like this, and Liu Xie was already 28 years old. He had never held power in his life and could only sit in the deep palace every day.

For Liu Xie, these days were extremely painful. Seeing that the world had returned to peace, he simply proposed the issue of abdication again.

Anyway, after all the give and take, the world belongs to the Liu family. He got his freedom and Liu Bei got the throne. It was the best of both worlds.

However, Old Liu had been loyal to the Han Dynasty for most of his life. He was shocked to hear this and refused to accept it. He directly asked Liu Xie to revoke his decision.

Liu Xie had no choice but to give up the idea temporarily, but Liu Bei did not agree, and his civil and military officials began to plan for Liu Bei to ascend the throne.

In June of that year, reports came from various places saying that a phoenix was seen in Hongnong, a unicorn appeared in Linzi City, and a yellow dragon appeared in Ye County. Upon hearing the news, Liu Ye and Pang Tong came to the palace and signaled to Liu Bei that he could ascend the throne.

Liu Bei did not agree to it. At the court meeting the next day, the officials reported to their superiors that Liu Xie had formally issued an edict announcing the abdication of power, but Liu Bei refused to accept it.

Another day, Liu Bei asked Wang Can to write a letter to the emperor, claiming that his virtue was poor and asking for another great sage to succeed him.

Seeing this, Liu Xie smiled bitterly and said to the crowd, "I originally saw that the King of Han would revive the Han Dynasty, and I wanted to give the throne to him, but the King of Han is humble, what should I do?"

When the crowd heard this, they saw Hua Xin step out and say, "When the King of Han accepted the title of King, he declined three times and was refused by the emperor before he accepted it. Now, Your Majesty can issue another decree, and the King of Han will certainly agree to it."

Liu Xie was helpless after hearing this, so he ordered Huan Jie to draft an edict and sent Zhang Yin, an envoy to the Imperial Ancestral Temple, to the King of Han with the imperial seal and the imperial seal to announce the abdication edict.

After Liu Bei received the letter, Ren Jiu felt embarrassed and still refused. When Liu Xie saw this, he summoned Xun Yu, Jia Xu and others to meet him.

When Jia Xu heard this, he said, "This is an easy matter. The reason why the King of Han refused to accept it is that he was afraid of the reputation he would receive in the future. Your Majesty, why don't you set up a Zen platform?"

"Choose an auspicious day and gather all the ministers, both great and small, to the altar, and have the emperor personally present the seal and ribbon, and abdicate the throne to the king. This will dispel the doubts and end the public opinion."

Upon hearing this, Liu Xie was overjoyed, so he sent officials from the Taichang Academy to select a site in Fanyang and build a three-story altar. He chose the hour of yin on the Gengwu day of August to abdicate.

Liu Bei felt helpless when he heard this, so he had to call Qin Zhen and sighed, "In the past, you and I were stationed outside Xiaopei City, and we never thought about the situation today."

"Now that I am in danger of being criticized, the emperor wants to abdicate. Do you want to make me a disloyal and unrighteous person? How can I follow the actions of a traitor?"

He knew that most of this was driven by Qin Zhen, which caused Qin Zhen to complain, indicating that they were being too impatient.

However, Qin Zhen heard this and said, "Since ancient times, people who abdicated the throne have always been good at talking about it. I have never seen anyone who abdicated the throne and was criticized by the world. Your Majesty is a good king, why is he so timid?"

"Furthermore, Your Majesty is a descendant of the Han Dynasty, and it is only right that You inherit the throne and continue the Han Dynasty's worship. Now that the world is unified and the people are loyal to You, the emperor also has this intention. Why don't You accept it?"

Seeing this, Liu Bei sighed and said, "Although I am the grandson of Emperor Jing, I have not brought any virtue to the people. If I am ordered to become emperor now, I will be criticized by future generations!"

In fact, how could Liu Bei not want to be emperor? It's just that he always felt that it was a bit too hasty to accept the abdication and become emperor now.

Old Liu has claimed to have supported the Han Dynasty for most of his life, but now that the world has just been unified, he ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor. How will future generations view him?
Therefore, according to his thinking, he needs to wait for a few more years until the general situation in the world is stable before abdicating. Only then can he accept the throne with peace of mind after he has made some achievements.

However, when Qin Zhen heard this, he smiled at Lao Liu and said, "This is not a personal wish. Does the King of Han really think that accepting the throne now is the will of the emperor and his family?"

"No, this is the intention of all the officials in the world! Your Majesty, you must know that our achievements so far are not the work of one or two people, but the concerted efforts of all the civil and military officials, which have led to the unification of the world today."

"So now that Your Majesty accepts the abdication, not only Your Majesty will benefit, but all the civil and military officials will also benefit. If Your Majesty does not accept it, all the civil and military officials will resent it!"

"The world is now at peace, and it is time to stabilize people's hearts. If Your Majesty does not accept it, people's hearts will be scattered, and chaos will arise again in the future, what should we do?"

In fact, after Liu Bei entered Chang'an, many things were no longer decided by Liu Bei, because Liu Bei now represented a huge interest group.

Only when Liu Bei comes to power can this interest group come to power, which is why Liu Ye, Pang Tong and others continued to advocate Liu Bei's ascension to the throne.

Now Liu Bei refused to accept the throne, which delayed the interests of not two people, but a huge interest group, so Liu Bei must ascend the throne as soon as possible. He added: "The sage said: If the name is not right, the words will not flow. Now the king's name is right and the words are right, what is there to discuss? Haven't you heard that if you don't take what God gives you, you will suffer the consequences?"

After these words, Liu Bei finally nodded and sighed: "Forget it, what you said now is really putting me in an unjust position!"

Although he complained a little, he still agreed to Qin Zhen's words. After Qin Zhen persuaded Liu Bei, he asked all the officials to come and ask for orders the next day.

As for the time of the abdication in August, Emperor Xian invited King of Han Liu Bei to ascend the altar to receive the abdication. Hundreds of officials of all ranks and more than 100,000 soldiers gathered under the altar. Liu Xie personally held the jade seal to Liu Bei.

The ministers knelt down and listened to the book: "I ask you, King of Han! In the past, Tang Yao abdicated to Yu Shun, and Shun also ordered Yu: The mandate of heaven is not constant, but only belongs to those with virtue.

The Han Dynasty was in decline, and the world lost its order. When it came to me, chaos and darkness broke out, evil people were rampant and rebellious, and the world was overthrown. I was relying on the divine power of the King of Han to save the world from this disaster. I was able to purify the country and protect our ancestral temple. How could I, alone, achieve peace so that the nine dynasties could truly benefit from it?

Today, I have restored the great cause of civil and military affairs, and have shown your great achievements. The imperial spirit has descended upon you, and the gods and people have called upon you. You are so brilliant, and the teacher has bestowed upon you my mandate. I have said that you are as good as Yu and Shun, and you can lead us in Tang Dynasty. I respectfully abdicate your throne. What a joke! The destiny of heaven is in your hands. You should be obedient to the great ceremony, and entertain all nations to solemnly accept the mandate of heaven!

Liu Bei, who was listening to this, had tears in his eyes and refused to accept it, saying: "I have no talent or virtue, please choose someone with talent and virtue to accept it."

Qin Zhen saw this and stepped forward to say, "Your Majesty has pacified the four seas and his merits are known to the world. Moreover, you are the leader of the Han dynasty. You should take the throne. I have already offered sacrifices to the gods. Why should I refuse?"

Upon hearing this, all the officials shouted "Long live the emperor". After the dance and bowing ceremony, Liu Bei received the seal, changed the era name to the first year of Zhangwu, and made his concubine Mi the empress and his disciple Liu Jie the crown prince.

Qin Zhen was appointed as prime minister and given the title of Duke Zhenguo, Guan Yu was appointed as general and given the title of Duke Yiguo, Zhang Fei was appointed as general of cavalry and given the title of Duke Yongguo, and Liu Xie was changed to King of Shanyang.

At this point, under the three dukes and one king, more than thirty civil and military officials including Xun Yu, Xiahou Dun, Jia Xu, Dong Zhao, Liu Ye, Zhang Zhao, Zhang Hong, Lu Bu, Zhang Liao, Zhao Yun, Chen Dao, Xu Sheng, Xu Shu, Gan Ning, Zhou Yu, Taishi Ci, Yuan Huan, Jian Yong, Sun Qian, and Mi Zhu were all granted the title of marquis.

The rest of the ministers were promoted and rewarded one by one, and a general amnesty was issued. The people under his rule were all delighted. In September, the news came that Guan Yu had pacified Bingzhou, and Liu Bei issued an edict to stabilize the situation in the world within five years.

With this, the Han Dynasty entered a five-year period of recuperation. During these five years, in order to resume production as soon as possible, Qin Zhen implemented the baojia system throughout the country.

At the same time, six special economic zones, namely Nanping, Jiaozhi, Nanyang, Donghai, Bohai and Chang'an, were established to implement comprehensive tax reforms in the Han Dynasty and stabilize market prices.

After five years, the situation in the Thirteen States of the Han Dynasty was initially stabilized. However, unlike the policy of recuperation implemented when the two Han Dynasties were pacified, although the Han Dynasty at this time had suffered the trauma of war, it was extremely aggressive.

Because although Qin Zhen's policy of developing the country through industry and commerce brought enormous wealth to the Han Dynasty, it also brought about a large labor shortage!
After all, no matter what goods you want to produce, a large amount of labor is needed, but the productivity of the Han Dynasty was not enough to liberate so many laborers.

Therefore, after the establishment of the special economic zone, Han Dynasty faced a considerable labor shortage problem. In order to eliminate this problem, there are only two ways.

The first is to reduce the scale of industry and commerce, ensure people's livelihood first, and then develop industry and commerce after productivity develops to the point where it can support excess labor.

The second is to increase military investment and continuously go to the surrounding areas to plunder foreign labor to make up for the lack of this part of the labor force and strive to climb the technology tree.

Obviously, Qin Zhen chose the latter path. While stabilizing the domestic situation, he increased the scale of foreign looting and captured a large number of prisoners.

The implementation of this policy resulted in Liu Bei's subordinates mobilizing troops almost every year. In addition to the troops stationed in Yizhou and Nanyang, in the second year of Zhangwu, Jiangdong Governor Lu Su launched a campaign to clear out the Shanyue people in the territory.

After several years of clearing out, there were only a hundred thousand Shanyue people left in Jiangdong. With the cooperation of Lu Su and other generals, the Shanyue people in Jiangdong were wiped out in one fell swoop, and a large number of prisoners were captured.

In the third year of Zhangwu, Zhang Fei, General of Cavalry and Governor of Southern Yi, with the cooperation of Zhuge Liang, launched an active attack on Nanzhong, penetrated deep into the barren land, and attacked powerful families such as Yong Kai and Zhu Bao.

Under Qin Zhen's policy of using barbarians to control barbarians, Zhuge Liang formed the Wudang Flying Army with barbarian soldiers. On the one hand, he divided the enemy and on the other hand, he attacked the stubborn forces. His troops set out in March, and by autumn, Nanzhong was finally pacified.

As for the fourth year of Zhangwu, the total number of slaves in the Han Dynasty had exceeded two million, mainly distributed in Jiangdong, Yizhou, Guanzhong, Nanyang and other places, which greatly accelerated the development of industry and commerce in the Han Dynasty.

At the same time, Qin Zhen did not forget to climb the technology tree. While developing business, Qin Zhen established the National Academy of Sciences, where Huang Chengyan and others continued to develop new technologies.

During this period, due to the continuous maturity of industries such as steel smelting and mining, and the use of rubber from southern Jiaozhou, the Great Han Academy of Sciences successfully developed the first steam-powered textile machine.

The emergence of the steam engine obviously meant the accelerated progress of productivity. With its feedback, the steam power system, steam stamping technology and mining were further developed.

In order to better mine coal, alchemists at the Academy of Sciences learned from the experience of alchemy furnace blasting and developed black gunpowder that was powerful enough to split mountains and rocks.

As soon as gunpowder appeared, Qin Zhen took it seriously and announced that the formula of gunpowder would be blocked and could not be spread to the outside world except by the government.

But the reason he blocked it was not to prohibit its use, but to develop the matchlock gun and form a new army. After a year, the matchlock gun was officially introduced.

In the sixth year of Zhangwu, as the five-year period was up, Qin Zhen submitted a petition to Liu Bei to attack Liaodong and Goguryeo in order to resolve the threat posed by the Gongsun clan in the northeast.

Following his suggestion, Liu Bei agreed to the proposal and in the sixth year of Zhangwu, he ordered General Zhang Liao to march north to attack Liaodong. In this battle, new matchlock soldiers and artillery appeared for the first time.

Once he appeared, the whole world was shocked. In just three months, he invaded Liaodong County. In October of the sixth year of Zhangwu, Gongsun Kang of Liaodong submitted a letter of surrender, and Zhang Liao invaded the territory of Goguryeo.

In order to expand the territory, Zhang Liao did not return to the army, but recuperated. In March of the following year, he led an army of 40,000 to defeat Goguryeo. Afterwards, he led his army south to the Three Kingdoms of Korea. After more than four months, the Liaodong Peninsula was pacified.

When the news reached the country, the emperor was delighted and personally appointed Zhang Liao as the General of Pacification of the North. He integrated the newly conquered territories into a state, called Korea, and appointed Tian Yu as the governor.

At this point, all the powerful enemies of the Han Dynasty were swept away, and only dozens of small Hu states in the north, such as the Xianbei, Qiang, Jie, Di, and Xiongnu, remained.

In order to completely solve the problem of border problems, in the tenth year of Zhangwu, Emperor Zhaowu of Han, Liu Bei, issued an edict to lead troops to the north to prepare to recover the territory south of the Great Wall.

(End of this chapter)