I will be the master of Xuande

Chapter 197 Game of Thrones, Five Kings Found the Mansion

Lu Zhi came to Jizhou and became the northern shepherd of Jizhou. According to Liu Hong's wishes when he was alive, he originally wanted to use Lu Zhi to watch Liu Jian.

But Liu Hong had calculated thousands of times, but what he didn't count was that Lu Zhi's expectations for Liu Jian were so high.

He was so old that, as Liu Jian's teacher, he was willing to give him a wing. He was willing to support Liu Jian in Jizhou, help Liu Jian govern Jizhou wholeheartedly, and even help his apprentices make suggestions.

Although Liu Jian is still the shepherd of Southern Jizhou, with the arrival of Lu Zhi, Liu Jian has actually obtained the authority and qualification to govern the entire Jizhou.

His next plan is to copy all the experience in governing in southern Jizhou as a whole, and apply them to the counties in northern Jizhou.

But before that, Lu Zhi's design must be completed first, and in the name of the joint convening of the two state pastoral envoys, five princes and kings in Jizhou were 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 crown, their status was quite noble. They have been supervised and restricted by the local governor and prefect, so life is not going well.

And Liu Hong granted the princes and kings the right to open the mansion, which made them turn over as a whole, but this turn over was a little different from others.

Liu Hong's work is naturally full of calculations and conspiracies.

Opening a mansion means that princes and kings can recruit their own staff and officials, but the problem is that recruiting officials needs to be entrusted with positions to govern.

However, the political power of all the vassal states in the Han Dynasty was in the hands of the prime ministers of a country and their officials. Although Liu Hong granted the vassal kings the right to open the mansion, he did not clearly divide domestic political affairs from the vassal kings.

Therefore, these princes and kings opened their houses to govern, which is essentially a joke.

There is no actual governing territory, and there is no financial power income.

But there is one power that Liu Hong did not take away.

That is, they can recruit their own princes and kings.

This is the unique power of princes and kings after the opening of the mansion.

But to recruit soldiers, there is a problem, that is, where does the princes and kings get the money to raise soldiers?
It is absolutely impossible for the ministers of various countries to agree to let the finances of the counties and states bear the consumption of the private soldiers of the princes and kings.

Unless they have that serious illness.

Because in the Han Dynasty, except for the 36 counties in the border counties, which had about [-] standing county soldiers all the year round, the counties in the interior did not have county soldiers.

At least that was the case when the world was in chaos and the princes and herdsmen were doing their own thing.

After the world was in chaos and the lords competed for the throne, the prefects in various places began to recruit soldiers by themselves. At the same time, the well-dressed families in various places also began to set up their own private music clubs.

But all of this will have to wait until the world is in chaos. At this juncture, no matter how powerful you are, if you dare to set up a private club blatantly, you are looking for annihilation.

The princes and kings opened their mansions and were unable to govern, and the local counties and states would not give them money to raise soldiers, so would they still raise soldiers?

They will definitely raise!
At least, they still have fiefs and farmers who belong to them.

It doesn't matter if the county state allocates the fief income that belongs to them every year, even if it is all paid out!
After all, the privilege that has been waiting for hundreds of years to come back again, even if you pay for it yourself, you have to hold on to this facade.

This is the privilege of Prince Liu!
The princes and kings don't want to be looked down upon anymore!

Therefore, this is where Liu Hong is shrewd and insidious.

He gave the princes and kings the right to open the mansion, but in fact it was just an empty shell, without the power to govern.

Some just establish the power of princes and kings.

But Liu Hong refused to allow local finance to support them.

The princes and kings will receive a sum of income belonging to their own fiefs from the prime minister every year.

And this money that would have been used by the princes and kings for consumption is now taken out of their own pockets and used to support their own soldiers.

And this army of soldiers that the princes and kings paid for themselves was used by them to limit the power of the local prime minister.

The prime minister has political power and financial power, but if the jurisdiction does not belong to the border county, there is no possibility of building an army.

But now the princes and kings in the country have soldiers.

A vassal king with soldiers will naturally deter the prime minister.

However, the princes and kings with soldiers have limited financial power, and the financial power of the princes and kings' fiefdoms is still uniformly levied after the collection of taxes by the counties and states.

This formed a check and balance between local counties and princes and kings.

At the beginning, Liu Jian just gave Liu Hong a proposal to open a mansion for the princes and kings.

However, I didn't expect Liu Hong to play the matter of opening the mansion for the princes and kings so slippery after his own improvement.

And judging from the containment tactics between the local counties and princes and kings, all of them are branded with conspiracies with Liu Hong's label.

But now, Liu Jian started to play Yangmou.

……

The five messengers, holding the edicts of Liu Jian and Lu Zhi, the two prefects, went to Zhao State, Ganling State, Hejian State, Changshan State, and Anping State to deliver letters to the five princes and kings.

In fact, there is also a Zhongshan country in Jizhou. The king of Zhongshan is named Liu Zhi, and the family has been king for six generations. But in his generation, Liu Zhi has no sons, and he himself has been seriously ill recently. Liu Jian's situation, and after his death, it is estimated that Zhongshan will be expelled from the country, so Liu Jian did not look for Liu Zhi.

Except for Liu Zhi, the other five princes and kings of Jizhou all received Liu Jian's invitation letter.

Although the princes and kings opened their mansions, they became rivals with the local prime ministers, but Liu Jian and Lu Zhi, as state shepherds, took over all the military, government, people's livelihood and financial rights in Jizhou, and the princes and kings still had to be controlled by them.

In Jizhou, as long as there is a person with a name and a surname...or to put it more bluntly, even a dog with a name and a surname, Liu Jian and Lu Zhi can take care of them.

Ever since, 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 Liu Jian's kindness after Liu Jian flattened the Yellow Turban, so the fart and fart came first.

And King Ganling, King Hejian, and King Zhao didn't have friendship with Liu Jian, but they all knew that his reputation and style were very good, and they were all relatives of the Han family, so the three princes and kings would naturally not be with him. Seeing the outside, he also rushed to Yecheng.

Just when the five princes and kings were invited to come to Yecheng, Yecheng welcomed two important figures one after another.

One is Huang Zhong, who was transferred to be the captain of Wuhuan.

The other one was Xu Rong who voluntarily resigned and returned to his hometown, but came to Jizhou to join Liu Jian.

Because of his outstanding meritorious service, Huang Zhong was granted a military post of two thousand shi, and it was completely within Liu Jian's expectation to come here.

But Xu Rong would rather resign than come to Jizhou to join him, which was a bit beyond Liu Jian's expectations.

Although when Liu Jian recommended Xu Rong to Zhang Wen, he probably expected that Xu Rong would be depressed and hopeless, but he really did not expect that the effect would be so obvious.

Even if Xu Rong gave himself a letter in advance and asked Liu Jian to find a way to mobilize him, Liu Jian still felt that was the case.

I never thought that Xu Rong would just quit his job and go straight to his command.

"Your Majesty!"

Xu Rong knelt down on one knee, clasped his fists with both hands, and said loudly: "Xu Rong, a white man, has the audacity to recommend himself to the envoy's command, and 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 regret, and sighed: "How did it become like this? It's so good, why did you resign? You know, it's not easy for you to get to where you are today."

Xu Rong shook his head and said firmly: "It's nothing difficult. Xu Rong lived to the age of nearly forty, and only then did he understand the truth that good birds choose trees to live in. He was full of enthusiasm in the past, but today he has disappeared. Alas! If there is no envoy like this Under the leadership of the heroic master, Xu Rong will never be able to achieve his official career in this life, only with the master who is sure to know talents, can he realize his ambitions, it's a pity that Xu Rong didn't understand this truth before!"

After finishing speaking, I saw Xu Rong first raised his hands and raised his forehead like a salute, tried his best to bend down, took a bowing posture, straightened his back, and landed his knees on the ground at the same time, bowed down slowly, with his palms on the ground, and put his forehead on his palms in a salute, and then Straighten your upper body, and at the same time gather your hands to the level of your eyebrows.

There is no doubt that this is the most solemn set of postures in the Han ceremony.

He performed this ceremony to Liu Jian as a ceremony to recognize the Lord.

From now on, in a sense, Xu Rong is no longer a sergeant belonging to the Han emperor, but has become Liu Jian's personal retainer.

Even Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were only considered brothers Liu Jian. Although Zhao Yun and Xia Houlan were followers, they had never performed such a formal ceremony of worshiping the Lord.

It seems that this time, Xu Rong is really determined to be tied to himself.

"Meng Tong, why bother!" Liu Jian stretched out his hand 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 doesn't need to regard me as a colleague. Xu Rong is my lord's retainer. From now on, Xu Rong will follow my lord to the end!"

Liu Jian sighed and patted his palm, saying: "If so, I will never lose to Meng Tongye in this life."

(End of this chapter)