Han officials

Chapter 124 The Stupid King Is Not Stupid
"Lord Wei, long time no see. How have you been lately?"

The next day, in the prefect's mansion, a young eunuch said with a smile on his face.

That’s right, the person who came to announce the decree this time was an old acquaintance.

Seeing this, Wei Zhe also greeted him with a smile on his face.

Only after all the rituals were prepared did Wei Zhe lead everyone in the mansion to listen respectfully to the imperial decree.

"Holy One, who revived the Han Dynasty and enlightened all creation... Wei Zhe, the governor of Liaodong, is well versed in military tactics and has made great contributions in defending the border. His illustrious achievements are all witnessed..."

In the hall of the prefectural government, the eunuch read out in a loud voice:

"I now appoint him General of Cavalry, and give him the two counties of Buye and Buqi, covering a total of 4,000 households, to honor his loyalty. How respectful!"

The so-called "General of Cavalry" was actually a general with a miscellaneous title. During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, Li Guang was appointed as the General of Cavalry.

However, the title of "general" is very valuable in this dynasty, so generals with other titles are rare.

Simply put, the title of "General of Cavalry" was just an honor bestowed upon Wei Zhe. It didn't confer any real power, but it served to give him a sense of justification when his subordinates addressed him as a general.

Wei Zhe was neither too surprised nor disappointed when he heard this.

After all, he was well aware of his own situation. If the emperor rewarded him too much this time, it would be difficult to deal with it later.

In fact, when Wei Zhe submitted the memorial, he did not expect to receive any reward.

After all, whether the court rewards him or not, he has to guard Liaodong.

Now that his fiefdom has increased by another two thousand households, Wei Zhe is already very satisfied.

However, just as Wei Zhe was about to accept the decree and express his gratitude, the eunuch suddenly chuckled and said, "Don't worry, Lord Wei. There is another decree."

You should know that this time Sun Jian skipped the titles of Tinghou and Xianghou and was directly granted the title of Xianhou.

If Wei Zhe only gave such a small reward, the court would inevitably be suspected of favoritism.

Even if the emperor was not worried about Wei Zhe being disappointed, he would still be worried about whether the prefects of the border counties would think too much.

If the next time the barbarians invade the border, the governors of many border counties do not put in any effort, the emperor will cry his heart out.

So although Wei Zhe's situation was a little troublesome, the emperor still came up with a good idea.

I have to admit that Liu Hong is worthy of being the emperor for so many years, and he really has his own set of imperial mentality.

Why do you say that?
Because the second edict was actually given to Wei Zhe's mother, Liu!
……

"Lord Chungu, you have a wonderful son!" A moment later, the eunuch said to Liu with a look of deep emotion, "Such kindness is the first of its kind since the current emperor ascended the throne!"

Liu was also very excited at this moment, and even couldn't help crying with joy.

There is no way, this reward is of great significance to her.

Because the emperor not only conferred the title of Chungu Jun on her, but also included her in the family tree.

In other words, from today on, she is a genuine member of the Han royal family!
Don’t underestimate this point. You should know how many relatives of the Han Dynasty there are now!

Since the Western Han Dynasty, after nearly four hundred years of reproduction, there are at least 80,000 Han royal relatives.

For example, people like Liu Bei who claimed to be a relative of the Han Dynasty no longer paid attention to them. If you randomly pick up someone with the surname Liu on the street, there is a 50% chance that their ancestor is a prince of the Former Han Dynasty.

Especially the great stud Liu Sheng, King Jing of Zhongshan, who had more than 120 offspring when he was alive.

After hundreds of years, the descendants of Liu Sheng, King Jing of Zhongshan, are everywhere, but only a few of them can be included in the family tree.

Of course, Prince Gong of Lu, Liu Yu, was not much better.

According to the genealogy, Liu is actually a cousin of Liu Yan and Liu Biao.

But if Liu really came to the door, I'm afraid even the doorman wouldn't even look at her.

Even Liu Yan and Liu Biao, the two descendants of Liu Yu, the King Gong of Lu, had no friendship with each other.

But now that the Liu family is included in the family tree, the situation is very different.

In front of Liu, an authentic relative of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bei would probably be embarrassed to mention his catchphrase again.

It was precisely because of this that Liu held Wei Zhe's hand tightly after the eunuch finished reading the imperial edict.

"Good boy~Good boy~"

At this moment, Liu couldn't even utter a complete sentence and could only keep muttering with tears in her eyes.

Seeing the old lady's hands and feet trembling with excitement, Wei Zhe came to his senses and quickly helped her back to the inner room to rest and calm down, so as to avoid excessive joy leading to sorrow.

Seeing this, the eunuch knew that now was not the time to talk, so he took his leave and left.

After a long time, when Wei Zhe had dealt with the crowd of congratulators outside and returned to the inner room, Liu finally recovered.

But when she saw Wei Zhe, Mother Wei couldn't help but stroke his rough cheek and said with a feeling of relief and distress: "My good boy, you have suffered so much!"

Liu also knew how critical the situation in Xuanqiu County was a while ago.

Those days were the most difficult time for Liu, because she was very likely to lose both her husband and son at the same time.

If Guan Yan had not been pregnant, she would have even wanted to return to Wei's Village to accompany the father and son through thick and thin.

As surprised as she was when she heard the imperial edict just now, she felt as heartbroken now.

After all, if her son had not risked his life to turn the tide, how could the emperor have rewarded him so generously?
Seeing the old lady start to wipe her tears again, Wei Zhe was suddenly at a loss whether to laugh or cry.

"Mother, didn't I tell you it's not as dangerous as you think?" However, no matter how Wei Zhe explained, Liu just didn't believe it.

Seeing this, Wei Zhe didn't say much, but just asked the maid to take care of the old man and let him rest first.

After all, Mother Wei was too excited today and her mind was exhausted, so she should rest more.

After Wei's mother left, Wei Zhe carefully helped Guan Yan sit down.

Calculating the time, she is already five months pregnant and is also a key protected person.

Seeing her looking towards Mother Wei with some envy, Wei Zhe immediately rubbed her head gently and chuckled, "Don't worry, your husband will definitely earn you another great title in the future!"

Guan Yan immediately shook her head upon hearing this: "I'm not envious, as long as my husband is safe and sound."

Upon hearing this, Wei Zhe laughed and said, "Alright, then let our child earn it for you."

Upon hearing this, Guan Yan rolled her eyes at him coquettishly.

"How can you be such a father? You've already planned this before the child is even born."

After the couple chatted for a while, seeing that Guan Yan gradually looked a little sleepy, Wei Zhe stopped talking and immediately ordered the maid to carefully help her to the inner room to rest.

It was not until there was no one else in the study that Wei Zhe, who was alone in the room, could not help but think carefully about what had happened today.

The emperor named him "General of Cavalry", which probably had a deeper meaning besides being a reward.

After all, "Xiaoqi General" is a general who commands cavalry, and Xiaoqi means brave and elite cavalry.

Emperor Wu of Han bestowed this title on Li Guang so that he could concentrate on dealing with the Huns.

By singling this one out among so many generals with miscellaneous titles, the emperor was probably hinting at him through this example.

But even though Wei Zhe guessed the meaning, he had nothing to say.

Yes, Wei Zhe did make great contributions this time, but the emperor’s reward was indeed very generous!
Listed in the family tree, wow~ Wei Zhe didn't expect Liu Hong to play like this!
Although his personal reward this time was relatively light, Wei Zhe had to admit that he was impressed.

Even the heroes of the world would praise the emperor for his consideration for his meritorious officials and for not treating them unfairly.

Of course, we have to praise Wei Zhe for his filial piety and envy Wei's mother.

You should know that since the Qin and Han Dynasties, although there have been cases of emperors bestowing titles on the mothers of their ministers, it was rare.

In fact, the earliest bestowal of titles was an act of the emperor extending favor to his subjects, and the parents and wives of the subjects were all within the scope of the titles.

However, not many people can enjoy this kind of treatment, and it was basically uncommon in the early Han Dynasty.

At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, after Wang Mang usurped power, he forced Emperor Ping of Han to confer the title of "Gongxian Jun" on his mother.

Wang Mang's mother also became the first mother to be granted a title because her grandson entered officialdom.

However, during the Han Dynasty, those who could obtain the title of "Jun" were generally relatives of the emperor.

For example, Emperor Wu of Han once named his grandmother Zang'er as Princess Pingyuan and his half-sister Jin Su as Princess Xiucheng.

Emperor Xuan of Han, Liu Bingyi, also conferred the title of Marquis of Boping on his grandmother, with a ration of 11,000 households.

Emperor Xiaoheng of this dynasty also bestowed the title of Kunyang Jun on Empress Deng's mother.

When General Liang Ji was in power, his wife was also granted the title of Lady of Xiangcheng and received taxes from Yangdi.

Therefore, for women in the Han Dynasty, being a lord was actually the second most honorable title after being a queen or a princess.

This is the reason why women are granted the title of lord and treated like princesses!

Looking through the historical records of the Han Dynasty, there are only about thirty cases in which women were granted titles of nobility or dukedom.

Well, this honor has declined slightly in this dynasty.

Because the emperors of this dynasty were rather absurd, they often enfeoffed their wet nurses as "lords".

For example, when Emperor An was in power, he canonized his wet nurse, Wang Sheng, as Yewang Jun.

After Emperor Shun inherited the throne, in order to express his gratitude to his wet nurse Song E, he conferred the title of Shanyang Jun on her and granted her a fief of 5,000 households.

At that time, many ministers wrote letters to express their opposition, believing that the nobles in the court should not be treated so disrespectfully, but their opposition was futile.

After the current emperor ascended the throne, Liu Hong had no pressure to confer the title of "Ping Shijun" on his wet nurse Zhao Rao.

Last year, the Grand Commandant Cui Lie bought his position as one of the Three Dukes through the connections of this Lord Taira.

It can be said that after being abused by successive Han emperors, the quality of female lords has become much dimmer.

But even so, this is a huge blessing for the Liu family!

From this perspective, Wei Zhe is the most genuine "filial and honest" person in the world today!
Of course, the title of "filial and honest" has no meaning to Wei Zhe now.

Compared to these superficial rewards, Wei Zhe cares more about the meaning behind them.

I don't know how the emperor got the idea, but Wei's mother was ranked in the same generation as the emperor in the family tree. In other words, Wei Zhe suddenly became the adopted nephew of Emperor Liu Hong.

When he thought of this, Wei Zhe realized that the honor of "General of Cavalry" was just empty, and this was the real reward that the emperor wanted to give him!

Thinking of this, Wei Zhe in the study couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.

The emperor's political tactics are simply perfect!
If he had not been born with a rebellious mind, any other native would have been completely devoted to the emperor.

Such a foolish ruler is really unexpected!

(End of this chapter)