Chapter 197 Game of Thrones Five Kings Founding the Mansion
Chapter 197 Game of Thrones, Five Kings Founding Their Mansion
Lu Zhi came to Jizhou and became the northern pastor of Jizhou. According to Liu Hong's wishes when he was still alive, he originally wanted to use Lu Zhi to visit Liu Jian.
But Liu Hong had calculated everything, but the only thing he hadn't calculated was that Lu Zhi had such great expectations for Liu Jian.
So much so that, as Liu Jian's teacher, he was willing to take his wing, support Liu Jian in Jizhou, wholeheartedly help Liu Jian govern Jizhou, and even help his apprentices make suggestions.
Although Liu Jian was still the shepherd of Southern Jizhou, with the arrival of Lu Zhi, Liu Jian had actually obtained the authority and qualifications to govern the entire Jizhou.
His next plan is to copy all the experience of governing in southern Jizhou and apply it to the counties in northern Jizhou.
But before that, Lu Zhi's plan must be completed first, and in the name of two state pastoral envoys jointly convened, the five princes and kings in Jizhou are invited to come to Yecheng to discuss matters.
The princes and kings were originally empty shells in the local area, but because they wore a royal crown and were quite noble in status, they were always under the supervision and restrictions of the local governor and prefect, so their life was very unhappy.
And Liu Hong granted the princes and kings the right to open their own houses, which made them all turn over, but this turn over was a little different from others.
When Liu Hong does things, there are naturally calculations and conspiracies behind them.
Opening a government means that princes and kings can recruit their own staff and officials, but the problem is that recruiting officials requires entrusting them with positions to govern.
However, the political power of all the vassal states in the Han Dynasty was in the hands of the prime minister of a country and their subordinate officials. Although Liu Hong granted the princes and kings the right to open their own houses, he did not clearly distinguish between domestic political affairs and the princes and kings.
Therefore, it is essentially a joke for these princes and kings to establish their own government.
There is no actual governing territory and no financial income.
But there was one right that Liu Hong did not deprive.
That is, they can recruit their own army of princes and kings.
This is the unique power of the princes and kings after the establishment of the government.
But when it comes to recruiting troops, there is a problem: where will the money for the princes and kings come from to raise troops?
It is absolutely impossible for the ministers of various countries to agree to let the finance of the county and state bear the consumption of private soldiers of the princes and kings.
Unless they have that serious illness.
Because in the Han Dynasty, except for the thirty-six border counties that had about 5,000 standing soldiers all year round, the counties in the interior did not have any soldiers.
At least that was the case during the period when the world was in chaos and the princes, pastors, and guardians were in charge of their own affairs.
After the world was in chaos and the heroes were vying for the throne, the governors in various places began to recruit soldiers and generals on their own. At the same time, the well-known families in various places also began to set up their own private troupes.
But these will have to wait until the world is in chaos. At this juncture, no matter how big a right-wing family you are, if you dare to blatantly set up a private branch, you are seeking to exterminate your family.
The princes and kings opened their own houses but could not govern, and the local counties would not give them money to raise troops. So would they still raise troops?
They will definitely raise it!
At least they still had fiefdoms and farmers who belonged to them.
The county allocates the income from the fiefdom to them every year, and it doesn't matter even if they pay it all!
After all, for a privilege that has been waiting for hundreds of years, even if you pay for it yourself, you still have to hold on to this facade.
This is the privilege of the Liu family!
The princes and kings don’t want to be looked down upon anymore!
Therefore, this is the shrewdness and insidiousness of Liu Hong.
He gave the princes and kings the power to open their own houses, but in fact they were just empty shells without the power to govern.
Some only have the power to establish princes and kings' armies.
But Liu Hong did not allow local finance to support them in raising troops.
The princes and kings will receive an income from their own fiefdoms from the Prime Minister every year.
And this wealth that would have been used by the princes and kings for consumption was now taken out of their own pockets and used to support their own soldiers.
And this army, which the princes and kings paid for themselves, was used by them to restrict the power of the local ministers.
The prime minister has political and financial power, but if the area under his jurisdiction does not belong to the border counties, there is no possibility of building an army.
But now the princes and kings in the country have troops.
A vassal king with soldiers will naturally intimidate the prime minister.
However, the financial rights of the princes and kings who had soldiers were limited, and the financial rights of the princes and kings' fiefdoms were uniformly collected after the taxation of the county and state.
This formed a check and balance between local counties and princes and kings.
Liu Jian originally just gave Liu Hong a proposal to open a mansion for the princes and princes.
However, he didn't expect that Liu Hong, after his own improvements, would actually take advantage of opening a mansion for princes and kings so easily.
Moreover, judging from the methods of restraint between local commanderies and princes, it can be seen that all of them are imprinted with the conspiracy of Liu Hong.
But now, Liu Jian started to play dirty tricks.
…
Five messengers, armed with the edicts of Liu Jian and Lu Zhi, went to Zhao, Ganling, Hejian, Changshan and Anping respectively to deliver messages to the five princes and kings.
In fact, there is another Zhongshan Kingdom in Jizhou. The king of Zhongshan is named Liu Zhi, and his family has been king for six generations. However, in his generation, Liu Zhi has no sons, and he himself has been seriously ill recently. He is already dying and has no ability to come.
Due to Liu Jian's situation, and after his death, it was estimated that the Zhongshan Kingdom would be expelled, so Liu Jian did not look for Liu Zhi.
Except for Liu Zhi, the other five princes and kings in Jizhou all received invitations from Liu Jian.
Although the princes and kings opened their own houses and competed with the local state ministers, Liu Jian and Lu Zhi, as state shepherds, took charge of all the military, political, people's livelihood and financial rights in Jizhou, so the princes and kings still had to be controlled by them.
In Jizhou, Liu Jian and Lu Zhi can take care of any person with a name...or to put it more harshly, even a dog with a name.
So, the five princes and kings set out towards Yecheng with their own thoughts.
Among these princes and kings, Liu Hao, the king of Changshan, and Liu Xu, the king of Anping, both received favors from Liu Jian after Liu Jianping Yellow Turban, so they were the first to come.
Although King Ganling, King Hejian and King Zhao had no friendship with Liu Jian, they all knew that his reputation and reputation were very good, and they were all members of the Han family, so the three princes and kings would naturally not interact with him.
Seeing the outside, he also rushed to Yecheng.
Just when the five princes and kings were invited to Yecheng, two important figures came to Yecheng one after another.
One is Huang Zhong, who was transferred to the rank of Colonel Huhuan Huan.
The other one, Xu Rong, took the initiative to resign and return home, but came to Jizhou to join Liu Jian.
Because of his outstanding meritorious service, Huang Zhong was awarded a military rank of two thousand stones. Liu Jian's arrival here was completely unexpected.
But Xu Rong would rather resign than come to Jizhou to seek refuge, which was beyond Liu Jian's expectation.
Although Liu Jian initially recommended Xu Rong to Zhang Wen, he probably expected that Xu Rong would be depressed and frustrated, but he really did not expect that the effect would be so obvious.
Even if Xu Rong gave him a letter in advance and asked Liu Jian to find a way to mobilize him, Liu Jian still thought that was the case.
Who would have thought that Xu Rong would simply abandon his official position and join his own army?
"Your Majesty!"
Xu Rong knelt on the ground with one knee, clasped his fists with both hands, and said loudly: "Xu Rong, a white man, has shamelessly recommended himself to the envoy's command and tied a grass ring in his name. He has no regrets! I just ask the envoy to accept Xu Rong!"
"Meng Tong, get up quickly."
Liu Jian walked up to Xu Rong himself and helped him up.
He looked at Xu Rong with a regretful look on his face and sighed: "Why did it become like this? Why do you want to resign if you are so good? You know, it is not easy for you to get to where you are today."
Xu Rong shook his head and said firmly: "It's not easy. Only when Xu Rong lived to the age of almost forty did he understand that good birds choose trees to roost in. The enthusiasm he had in those days has long since vanished. Alas! If you hadn't been like this. Under the guidance of his heroic master, Xu Rong will never be able to achieve his career in this life. Only by following a master who can recognize talents can he realize his ambitions. It is a pity that Xu Rong did not understand this truth before!"
After saying that, Xu Rong first raised his hands and forehead like a salute, bent down with all his strength, and made a bowing posture. After straightening up, he touched his knees to the ground at the same time, slowly bowed down, put his palms on the ground, and put his forehead against his palms in a salute. He straightened his upper body and brought his hands up to eyebrow level.
There is no doubt that this is the most solemn set of postures among Han rituals.
The ceremony he performed to Liu Jian was a ceremony of acknowledgment of his master.
From now on, in a sense, Xu Rong was no longer a sergeant belonging to the Han emperor, but became Liu Jian's personal retainer.
Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were only called brothers Liu Jian. Even though Zhao Yun and Xia Houlan were their followers, they had never performed such a formal worship ceremony.
It seems that Xu Rong is really determined to be tied to him this time.
"Meng Tong, why bother!" Liu Jian reached out and helped Xu Rong up from the ground: "Actually, I have always regarded you as a colleague."
Xu Rong shook his head and said: "From now on, my lord no longer needs to regard me as a colleague. Xu Rong is my lord's retainer. From now on, Xu Rong will go on horseback and back and swear to follow my lord to the end!"
Liu Jian sighed and patted his palm, saying, "If this is the case, I will never let Meng Tong down in this life."