Because they brought the emperor and many ministers from the court with them, the army did not return very quickly. It was more than twice as slow as when it marched more than a hundred miles a day when it was sent out. When the army passed Tongguan and had not yet reached Chang'an,
News has come from Guandong that Sun Jian defeated Yuan Shao's general Zhou Ang in Yuzhou.
After hearing the news, Chen Cheng couldn't help but sigh: "In today's world, in terms of the ability to lead troops to fight, only Huangfu Song and Cao Cao can compete with Sun Wentai!"
Dong Zhao's talents were outstanding, and more importantly, he liked Chen Cheng's words and actions, so he quickly gained his trust and became one of the decision-makers of the Xiliang Army. At this time, he heard Chen Cheng's emotion on the side,
He smiled and said: "Although Yuan Shao has great ambitions and little talent, his ally Cao Cao is a hero in the world. But when it comes to the ability to lead troops in war, Ming Gong is not inferior to Cao Mengde. Why do you need to be so ambitious and destroy your own prestige? Now Yuan Shu and Yuan Shao brothers
We have turned against each other. Yuan Shu has Sun Jian under his command, and Yuan Shao has Cao Cao under his command. We can just sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight!"
Chen Cheng smiled and said nothing else.
When the army returned to Chang'an, many things were pressed together. After Yan Zhong brought officials from three provinces and six ministries to Chang'an, he quickly took over all the rights in Guanzhong. This approach naturally aroused the resentment of the powerful and intellectuals in Guanzhong.
Dissatisfied, but Lu Bu had already cleansed Guanzhong before, and all the hard bones had been slaughtered, and the remaining people could only create some public opinion.
Yan Zhong was a bohemian man, but extremely harsh in his politics. During the time when Chen Cheng led his army out of Tongguan, Yan Bodao had already exiled more than a dozen powerful scholars to the Western Regions. This high-pressure governance method inspired more
However, Zhao Yun and Yang Qiu, who held military power, both sided with Yan Zhong, so the scholars and powerful men in Guanzhong could only endure it for the time being. When Chen Cheng returned to Chang'an, the previous conflicts would immediately break out.
came out.
Among the people in Guanzhong, Meng Tuo, the father of Meng Da, had the highest official position, and Meng Tuo's good friend Fazheng was the most favored by Chen Cheng. Therefore, these two people shouldered the expectations of the elders in Guanzhong and came to complain to Chen Cheng.
Although Fazheng is young, he has always been arrogant and dared to speak out. Even in front of Chen Cheng, he spoke very directly, "My lord, Guanzhong has just been pacified. It is the time when we need to cultivate and recuperate, so it is not appropriate to torture."
The law must be strict, but the restrictions must be relaxed!”
This is not a formal meeting, and no military generals are participating. Instead, Chen Cheng has called several civil servants under his command to come to his residence in Chang'an to discuss several recent more important issues. Conflicts will always exist, and politicians will waste their time and energy.
But it is limited, and it is impossible to cover everything, so we can only solve the main contradiction first.
The main contradiction now is the overt and covert struggle between the Liangzhou faction and the Guanzhong faction, and the resulting differences in governance concepts. Now Chen Cheng's subordinates have also become obviously divided into factions. When he was in Liangzhou, although
There is also a distinction between the Yuancong sect and the Liangzhou sect, but because Yan Zhong is from Yuancong and Liangzhou, the division between the factions is not so obvious.
Moreover, at that time, Chen Cheng had fewer civil servants, and could not even fill the positions of the three provinces and six ministries. Everyone was busy working, and there was no time to fight with each other. But when Chen Cheng defeated Lu Bu and Dong Zhuo, he seized the
After the third assistant, factional issues quickly surfaced.
Although Guanzhong is no longer the political, military, economic and cultural center of the country as it was hundreds of years ago, compared with Xiliang, it can already be regarded as a gathering of humanities. It is impossible for the scholars here to fill the positions of the government.
Problem, Chen Cheng, in addition to retaining officials at all levels, only promoted a few people such as Meng Tuo, Du Ji, and Bao Chu. On the contrary, he gave great rewards to the people of Liangzhou.
Yan Zhong, Xu Chao, Yang Qiu, Zhao Yun, Cheng Yi, Han Li, Xu Wen, etc. each had awards and occupied various official positions in Guanzhong. Not to mention those who came out of the Military Academy and the Army Primary School also occupied the official positions.
Various low-level positions in the army, or promoted to low-level officers.
However, the local people in Guanzhong were only incorporated into the government soldiers. In the eyes of the scholars and powerful men in Guanzhong, this kind of differential treatment was obviously using Liangzhou people to suppress the Guanzhong people. But in the eyes of the Liangzhou people, this was their
Those who followed Chen Chengan deserved what they deserved. How could we fight and bleed and work and sweat without you? When the overall situation is decided, you want to jump out and pick peaches? How can there be such a good thing in the world!
Sitting in the hall, in addition to Fazheng, were Yan Zhong, Jia Xu, Xu Chao, Meng Tuo, Cai Yong, Dong Zhao and others. Cai Yong and Dong Zhao just joined Chen Cheng. One of them was not good at handling government affairs, and the other was smart.
Jue Ding, now I am just sitting there, only listening and not talking.
Fazheng was young and energetic, and Yan Zhong was even more arrogant. After moving from Yinchuan to Chang'an, Yan Zhong was filled with joy. This was one step closer to the goal he was striving for, and his momentum also increased and became more fulfilling.
Hearing Fazheng say such childish words, he couldn't help but sneered.
Then, Yan Zhong said: "The country should be governed with a combination of leniency and severity. In the past, the imperial court was harsh on the common people, but it was too lenient on the powerful and aristocratic families, so that the aristocratic families occupied a lot of land, while the poor could not even stand on their own land.
No. Since the monarch has taken control of Chang'an, he naturally has to do the opposite. He should put the people first and impose severe punishments on the powerful and powerful people in various places. Only in this way can Guanzhong be governed!"
He stood up and pointed to the country, with high spirits, "The way to govern is to put the people first! But who are the people? Those who can be used by me are the people! Those who can pay taxes and food to the government are the people! Those who can give to the government
It is the people who provide the military resources from the government! We must protect such people and speak from their standpoint! Other than that, they are just thieves of the people!"
Yan Zhong speaks impassionedly, is full of enthusiasm, and has an impressive momentum. Although Fazheng is smart, he is still a little too young. Sometimes he thinks simply, even naively. It is normal to be rendered speechless by Yan Zhong.
He reluctantly looked at the people in the hall who had expressions of approval, turned to Meng Tuo and said, "Jing Zhaoyin, don't you have anything to say?"
Meng Tuo was always looked down upon by the scholars because he was a former eunuch of Afu. Now that he was elected by the officials in Guanzhong, it was just a false story. He was not a young man like Fazheng. He just wanted to get things over and didn't want to take care of it at all.
What is the life and death of the Guanzhong sect?
He himself has been favored by Chen Shijun. Although his son Meng Tuo is not as favored as Fa Zheng, he is also very fond of Chen Shijun. Seeing that the Meng family's prosperity is just around the corner, why bother to wade into these muddy waters? But when Fa Zheng named him, he was
The representative of Mr. Guan also had to say a few words.
"There is some truth in what Xiaozhi said. Guanzhong is exhausted and needs to recuperate," Meng Tuo said slowly: "But now there are enemies all around. The lord needs more soldiers and horses, as well as more money and food. Although recuperation can help
The people benefited, but they were unable to fulfill the lord's ambition."
Fazheng said a little impatiently: "Then what do you mean?"
"What I mean is that we will do what the lord says. The lord has seen thousands of miles away and his thoughts must be far beyond ours. As long as we implement it seriously, why should we consider other things?"
After hearing this, everyone admired his shamelessness, but also secretly cursed him as a flatterer.
Fazheng glanced at Meng Tuo with disdain. If the other person hadn't been Meng Da's father, he would have ridiculed him.
Chen Cheng just smiled at Meng Tuo's compliment and asked the others: "Do you have any other opinions?"
Everyone shook their heads or remained silent. Fa Zheng had nothing to say and could only sulker secretly. So Chen Cheng said: "Now that the emperor is coming to Chang'an, some of the court ministers are also following him. You can contact the court.
If the officials in the department have practical talents, they can be recommended to join the system of three provinces and six ministries. For other people, just let them hold official positions."
Yan Zhong, who had an old relationship with Cai Yong, said with a smile: "I have always known that Cai Yilang has a great talent and can be the Minister of Rites."
Chen Cheng nodded and said, "Yes."
Next, it was agreed to promote Jia Xu to the rank of Shi Zhongling and Dong Zhao to the rank of Shi Lang of the Ministry of Works, and to stuff the courtiers who came with the emperor's carriage into posts. In this way, the three provinces and six ministries, which were originally short of manpower, immediately
Most of them were filled, and some of the remaining positions were prepared to be given to the scholars and powerful men in Guanzhong after they passed the examination.
Now in the territory under Chen Cheng's rule, there are two methods of selecting talents, namely recommendation and imperial examination. However, no matter which method is used, they must pass the examination and confirm that they have basic management abilities and talents before they can be appointed.
Considering that knowledge is now monopolized in the hands of wealthy families, this approach has not encountered much opposition.
After the discussion, Yan Zhong said: "Before, we were busy with disaster relief. Now that Guanzhong has generally stabilized, do we need to re-measure the land and count the population?"
Dong Zhao, who was fair and fat, couldn't help but glance at Yan Zhong and thought: Such a drastic policy will definitely offend many people, and only Yan Shangshu dared to propose it.
Re-measurement of land and population statistics are something that rulers of all ages have wanted to do, but few have been able to succeed. Even Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu's talent and strategy encountered a lot of criticism in the process of implementing this policy.
Due to the resistance, it took a long time to implement this policy.
As long as we start to count the population and land, some people will inevitably die. But do we not do it because people will die? People will also die in war, so can we surrender to the enemy? This is obviously impossible.
Chen Cheng has already taken Guanzhong by force, so he naturally wants to control all the resources in Guanzhong.
Without asking anyone else, he immediately made the decision: "Bo Dao will be responsible for this matter. In addition to the trapped camp and the flying bear hussars, the county soldiers and tooth soldiers from all over the country can be mobilized at will. The prefect of the county is less than two thousand stones."
