Control your ancestors and create an immortal family starting from the Eastern Han Dynasty

Chapter 31 All nations come to court, the prosperity of Yongyuan

Ban Chao did not stay in Luoyang for long before deciding to return to the Western Regions.

In fact, whether it was the court officials or Liu Zhao, almost everyone hoped that Ban Chao could stay in Luoyang.

Although Dou Xian is dead.

However, it is still necessary to eliminate the influence of the Dou family in the local area over the years.

It is a blessing for everyone to have someone like Ban Chao who has a very high reputation in the army.

And Ban Chao is really not young anymore.

Years of war, coupled with the differences in all aspects between the Western Regions and the Central Plains.

It made him look very haggard.

Ban Chao was like a pillar supporting the sky for the entire Han Dynasty.

Not to mention the other ministers, at least Liu Zhao and Gu Shi did not want any accidents to happen to ministers like Ban Chao.

But Ban Chao's attitude was very firm.

In front of all the ministers, he bowed respectfully to Liu Zhao.

"His Majesty."

"Although the Western Regions have been pacified for many years, the dark waves have never ceased."

"I must personally go there to guard the area, so that the people of the Western Regions will firmly believe in our Han Dynasty."

He sighed softly, then continued, "Besides, even my brother died on the battlefield."

"What about me, minister?"

"If anything were to happen in the Western Regions, I would be ashamed to face my brother in the afterlife!"

Ban Chao seemed to be unable to smile, and his expression was always serious.

Hearing this, Liu Zhao seemed somewhat touched.

"Okay!"

He slowly stood up and looked at Ban Chao with a complicated expression, "Marquis Dingyuan is worthy of being the pillar of the Han Dynasty."

"Summon them and spread the brotherly love between Marquis Heng and Marquis Dingyuan to the world."

"Let all the people in the world know about this brotherhood!"

"In addition, the Dingyuan Marquis' fiefdom shall be increased by 500 households."

He planned to take advantage of this opportunity to offer large-scale rewards.

——This has always been the best way for an emperor to win people's hearts.

Because of the existence of the Gu family.

By now, the Han Dynasty court was already divided into distinct factions.

Those who had curry favor with the powerful had long been liquidated, and the remaining ones were almost all ministers who opposed the Dou family.

Liu Zhao was not stingy with his rewards at all, and everyone received enough rewards.

This even included the eunuch Zheng Zhong.

Various rewards such as ennoblement, additional fiefs and so on were granted according to merit.

However, Gu Liang did not receive any special rewards. Liu Zhao only promoted him to the position of Shangshu Ling.

Logically speaking, compared with his contributions, he should not receive only this kind of reward.

But no one was surprised at all.

The greatest reward of the Gu family is Gu Xi.

Everyone understood that as long as this eleven-year-old boy could grow up healthily, his future would be limitless.

It is very likely that he will become another person like Gu Kang.

This made everyone extremely fearful, but they could do nothing about it.

This is the merit of following the dragon.

Who can compare to him?

Liu Zhao did not hide his favor for Gu Xi at all.

He even gave Gu Xi a privilege that others could hardly imagine;

——You can enter and exit the palace directly.

This kind of honor is hard for others to imagine.

But perhaps because Gu Xi was still young, this incident did not cause much stir.

The eleven-year-old emperor;

Eleven-year-old Shizhong.

Even though the two of them have demonstrated some skills by eradicating the Dou family.

But it still gives people a sense of child's play.

Liu Zhao and Gu Xi naturally didn't care about other people's secret thoughts.

Perhaps it is really because of their young age that the two of them can fully demonstrate what it means to be high-spirited and ambitious.

After bestowing the rewards, the first thing they had to do was naturally to centralize power.

This is a compulsory course for every emperor.

This was done when Emperor Ming ascended the throne.

Emperor Zhang did the same.

It’s just because of Gu Kang’s presence that it’s not that obvious.

But Liu Zhao obviously needs to take drastic measures now.

He was already a young emperor, and with the Dou family's autocracy, he needed to re-establish his authority as emperor.

Gu Xi is indeed a talented young man.

In this special educational environment of the Gu family.

Almost all of the Gu family's descendants have their own opinions on the current political situation.

He had obviously thought about this problem more than once and directly proposed several solutions to Liu Zhao.

——First, it is to show kindness to the world.

Since the rise of the Han Dynasty until now.

He reigned from Guangwu to Mingdi and Zhangdi to Tiandi.

The three generations of wise kings have a very high status in the hearts of the people of the world, and each of them has done things that benefit the people.

Liu Zhao is indeed still young now.

But precisely because of this, if one can implement policies that benefit the people, his prestige in the hearts of people all over the world will rise rapidly.

The second is the court.

Gu Xi pointed out the problems with the current recommendation system.

In fact, this is already a very obvious problem for the Han Dynasty.

Since Gu Kang was born, the national strength of the entire Han Dynasty has been continuously improving, and the population has naturally grown rapidly.

The populations of different states and counties are not equal.

Under this rapid growth.

The policy of selecting two filial and honest officials from each county every year was obviously extremely unfair, so it was proposed to reform the system to recommend officials based on their merits.

This is indeed a big deal.

After a brief contemplation, Liu Zhao directly summoned all his ministers.

Because of the previous cleaning, the quality of the Han Dynasty temple today is far beyond the imagination of others.

A series of famous officials including Gu Liang, Yuan An, Ding Hong, and Liu Fang.

Naturally, they had already noticed this obvious problem and expressed their support.

This is something that is harmless to everyone.

In addition, the ministers made more detailed adjustments to this.

It even involved border areas with smaller populations and formulated more comprehensive reforms.

Although everything seems not to have changed much, it has changed completely.

This may be due to the influence of the Gu family.

This enabled Liu Zhao to seize power two years earlier and protected more famous officials.

Moreover, Gu Kang's ideas have now become popular throughout the Han Dynasty.

Most scholars in the world are pursuing the pragmatic spirit of Gu Kang, which has greatly improved the administrative efficiency of the entire Han Dynasty.

The Han Dynasty today is much more powerful than it was in history.

It is under this situation.

When the entire court began to return to normal and the emperor was willing to continue to benefit the people.

The entire Han Dynasty will usher in a period of rapid outbreak.

"Your Majesty has the spirit of the Ming Emperor."

This was the evaluation of Liu Zhao by the ministers after the court returned to normal.

He can be said to have completely inherited Liu Zhuang's diligence.

Even more diligent than Liu Zhuang.

Personally review memorials.

The entire Secretariat was restructured, and the "Six Departments of the Secretariat" were established to refine the central administrative division of labor and further improve efficiency.

He also improved the assessment system during the Ming Emperor's period.

Not only did he order his ministers to recommend talented people and personally examine them, but he also paid great attention to the talents of the recommended people.

Liu Zhao and Gu Xi are like templates of Liu Zhuang and Gu Kang.

And both of them just happen to have the goal of pursuing their ancestors.

They maintained the foundation of Emperor Zhang's tolerant rule.

He paid more attention to the administration of officials, and sent imperial censors to inspect local areas and severely punish corrupt officials.

This gradually changed the atmosphere in the entire court.

The increase in administrative speed completely swept away the stale atmosphere that had gradually emerged in the entire Han Dynasty court since Gu Kang's death.

Of course, there are also many struggles within the temple.

——With Yuan An’s death in the fifth year of Yongyuan.

With the passing of Gu's most powerful ally in the court, Gu Liang was targeted a lot.

Gu Liang has been an official for many years.

The ministers all knew what kind of person he was, and they did not want to see the Gu family return to the state they had been in during the reigns of Emperor Guangwu and Emperor Ming. But they still underestimated Gu Xi.

At this age, even Gu Kang may not be able to compare with Gu Xi, let alone others.

And the most important thing is that compared to Gu Liang who only cares about stability, Gu Xi has edges and corners.

Or maybe it’s because of youthful vigor.

Gu Xi's edge is even sharper than Gu Kang's when he first entered the court.

Gu Kang will still hold back.

But he won't.

Moreover, Gu Xi's political skills are also extraordinary.

He seemed to have learned some experience from Liu Zhao and was good at winning over the hearts of the servants in his political enemies' houses.

Use internal means to dismantle the offensive of political opponents and deal a fatal blow.

And Gu Xi's moral bottom line is also very flexible.

He was good at taking advantage of the reputation of the Gu family and the world and seizing the loopholes of his political enemies.

After several times.

The entire court gradually became quiet.

Everyone felt the terrifying power of Gu Xi, and at the same time realized how much Liu Zhao valued Gu Xi.

After all, there are things like temple struggles.

Regardless of the means used by both parties, only the emperor can make the judgment.

"Holy favor" descended upon the Gu family again.

These fights have made everyone realize this, so naturally no one will take risks again.

Under this gradually stable court situation.

In the last few years of his life, Gu Liang actually felt unprecedented relaxation.

He never imagined that the war that he had to be cautious in facing on a daily basis was actually carried by his own son.

In this situation, Gu Liang actually felt a rare sense of relief.

——August, the seventh year of Yongyuan.

Gu Liang passed away.

Compared with the previous two generations of the Gu family, Gu Liang's achievements are far inferior.

Naturally, it won’t cause much noise.

However, perhaps because he wanted to show favor to Gu Xi, or because Gu Liang had rebelled against Dou many times, Liu Zhao still wanted to give Gu Liang a posthumous title.

Even a common posthumous title is acceptable.

But not only the ministers opposed this matter, even Gu Xi and other members of the Gu family opposed it.

The Han Dynasty has not yet fallen to the point where posthumous titles are chosen casually.

The descendants of the Gu family all died because of Gu Liang’s last words.

Gu Liang didn't want to lower the achievements of two generations of Gu's ancestors because of himself.

Liu Zhao was helpless about this.

However, he still held a grand funeral for Gu Liang, which was considered as an expression of his affirmation of Gu Liang's life.

Since the emperor has made concessions, the ministers will naturally not object anymore.

And compared to Gu Kang at the beginning.

The ministers' attitude towards Gu Liang was much better, and they went to pay their respects one by one.

But since then, Gu Xi has become more diligent.

He seemed to keep this in mind.

He wanted to use his son's name to make Gu Liang shine in history books as well.

Just like Gu Kang in the past, he proposed various policies with Liu Zhao and implemented them.

Both of them were deeply influenced by Gu Kang's knowledge.

Naturally, the main focus is on governing the country.

——Promote reclamation in frontier areas;
He also reduced commercial taxes to promote trade between the Central Plains and the Western Regions.
Reduce or exempt taxes in disaster-stricken areas;
Continue to expand the Imperial College, and even open government schools in various places;
They even borrowed farming and oxen from poor households;

These policies completely awakened the national strength of the Han Dynasty. It seemed as if time had really returned to the time of Emperor Ming, and the national strength began to rise rapidly again.

The foundation laid by Gu Kang of Liuzhuang was too solid!
By the eleventh year of Yongyuan.

In just a few years, the population of the Han Dynasty has exceeded 50 million, and the cultivated land has exceeded 7 million hectares.

It has reached a level that was unimaginable to our predecessors.

At the same time, as trade routes became more and more popular, the reputation of the Han Dynasty also grew.

The Qiang tribe of the Dazhangyi tribe, the Bailang Kingdom, the Loubo tribe and others came to submit one after another.

Liu Zhao gave them both golden seals and purple ribbons.

The Kingdom of Tianzhu and Dunnin Yi also sent envoys to pay tribute.

Liu Zhao even sent Gan Ying to Daqin to see what the Daqin, which had been rumored among merchants and travelers, was like, in order to establish a larger foundation.

Based on the foundation laid by three generations of wise rulers and two generations of ancestors of the Gu family, the impact of this prosperous era far exceeded the original history.

Although it has only been a few short years, the Han Dynasty has already become a place where all nations come to pay tribute!
Gu Xi's official position also took this opportunity to continue to rise.

He officially entered the Shangshutai at the age of 20.

The relationship between the emperor and his minister gradually began to resemble that of Emperor Wencheng of the Ming Dynasty.

But even in such a prosperous era, there are still shadows.

During his time in power, Liu Zhao still had no children.

No, it cannot be said that I am childless.

Liu Zhao did have a son, his eldest son Liu Sheng.

However, Liu Sheng was ill and unable to serve in the ancestral temple.

As for the other offspring, they all died young.

In fact, this kind of thing is quite common in this era. Any newborn has a high probability of dying before reaching the age of ten.

But for the emperor, this was no small matter.

There is no selfish thing in heaven.

As the Han Dynasty grew stronger, the ministers became increasingly concerned about this matter and repeatedly suggested in the court that Liu Zhao should leave more offspring.

Even Gu Xi was worried about this.

Liu Zhao is in poor health.

That’s right, although Liu Zhao is still young, he has already had many problems with his body.

Even though it is not life-threatening now, the imperial physician is always watching.

But this is always an extremely unstable thing.

He is the emperor.

An emperor who has no crown prince and is ill.

How can this bring peace to the world?
In this feudal era, the impact of this incident was hard for others to imagine.

Even though the Han Dynasty has been glorious to this day, the atmosphere in the entire court has become heavy because of this kind of thing.

Gu Yi has been looking at Liu Zhao.

He was also very concerned about this matter.

Of course, he was not surprised by Liu Zhao's illness. According to the original history, Liu Zhao died young due to illness.

What he really cares about is whether Liu Zhao will end up in the same situation as Liu Zhuang as the Han Dynasty's national strength continues to rise.

The entire Han Dynasty continued to move forward under this situation.

Liu Zhao's illness became more serious.

Since the 13th year of Yongyuan, he was even unable to handle state affairs due to illness.

Once this happened, the entire court was in complete chaos.

Many ministers wrote to the emperor, urging him to put aside his political affairs, take care of his health, and give birth to a child.

At worst, they would have to adopt a son from another vassal king.

Gu Xi also thought so and advised Liu Zhao to cultivate his dragon body.

This time, Liu Zhao did not refuse.

He appointed Zheng Zhong, the Grand Chamberlain, as Marquis of Haoxiang and ordered Zhou Zhang, Xu Fang and others to assist Gu Xi in governing the country.

This can be said to be a huge trust.

In the past, the ministers would certainly argue endlessly about such matters.

After all, although Gu Xi has gradually shown his brilliance and made great achievements over the years, he is still far behind Gu Kang who was unquestionable back then.

However, given Liu Zhao's current physical condition, the ministers did not dare to say much.

At least for now, no one wants any problems to happen to the prosperous Han Dynasty.

Moreover, Liu Zhao did not mean to let Gu Xi have exclusive power.

Whether it is Zheng Zhong, Zhou Zhang, Xu Fang and others, these people can restrain each other.

But the officials still keenly noticed a detail.
At this moment, Gu Xi actually looked like a prime minister.

The Three Dukes and the Secretariat assisted in governing the country.

Isn’t this the power of the prime minister?

However, the ministers did not take it too seriously. After all, it was just a temporary solution.

Besides, the position of prime minister was abolished by Emperor Guangwu in the past.

The Han Dynasty governed the country with filial piety.

The law of our ancestors, this is the iron rule!!!

　This chapter is a bit too long

After thinking for a long time, I decided not to focus on writing about Emperor He, because the original focus of this generation's plot was not on this.

But I have to write it, after all, this is the dividing line of the entire Eastern Han Dynasty.

After thinking about it, I decided that instead of wasting two chapters, it would be better to just move on to the plot.

I hope my brothers will give me more support.

I beg for recommendation tickets and monthly tickets!!!

One more thing!! There will be a ton of updates once it's released! Hundreds of updates on the first day! Subsequent daily updates won't be less than 12,000 words!

　
(End of this chapter)