The Duke of Shu Han began guarding Jingzhou in place of Guan Yu.

Chapter 361 The Winds in Luoyang

The news reached Miwei in early June.

He naturally respected Lu Yu's objections.

Not just because the governor of Bingzhou of the Han Dynasty was recommended by him.

Furthermore, because the concerns raised by the other party are all real.

Now that the Shu Han dynasty has developed to this point, it can no longer consider only military needs while ignoring the people's livelihood.

Or to put it in a more sophisticated way.

It can be obtained immediately, but it cannot be cured immediately.

In this respect, Lu Yu, who was well-versed in civil affairs, was clearly more authoritative than Zhao Yun, who was well-versed in military affairs.

Lu Yu stated that the problem was serious.

Nine times out of ten, that's not a minor issue.

In addition, because Mi Wei was closer to Luoyang, he had more intelligence and thus a more comprehensive understanding of the issue.

Specifically, this happened shortly after the news of victory in Jinyang, along with reports of casualties, reached Luoyang.

A strange atmosphere suddenly arose at this temporary imperial residence.

A group of idle officials serving the emperor, led by Liao Li, the Commandant of the Changshui Cavalry, Meng Guang, the Commandant of the Tunqi Cavalry (who was a Consultant during Liu Bei's time), and Du Qiong, the Grand Counselor.

Suddenly, they collectively submitted a petition in Luoyang, requesting the emperor to follow the example of Emperor Gaozu of the past when he enfeoffed princes.

From Hebei to Huainan, all the generals of Cao Wei surrendered, so as to unify the world as soon as possible and restore peace to the land.

If these were merely "irresponsible matters before the emperor," Liu Shan could easily brush them off.

Following closely behind were Lu Yu, the governor of Bingzhou; Xu Miao, the prefect of Hedong; Shi Tao, the prefect of Hongnong; She Yuan, the prefect of Fengyi; Zhang Yi, the prefect of Nanjun; Yang Jun, the chief priest of Jingzhou; and Xi Zhen, the prefect of Lingling in Jiangnan, among other great Confucian scholars and officials with real power of two thousand shi (a unit of grain). They all submitted memorials, either responding to the call or offering similar views.

Then Liu Shan really couldn't hold on.

Not to mention that Liao Li and others also cunningly included the Chancellor Zhuge Liang, General Guan Yu, General Zhang Fei, and General Mi Wei, all pillars of the Shu Han dynasty, in the list of those to be granted the title of king.

This move clearly demonstrates how the enormous benefits could be used to bind all the important officials in the land together, forcing Liu Shan to relinquish those benefits.

Not to mention Liu Shan would have no chance against it, even if Liu Bei were to be resurrected, he would have to frown.

Left with no other choice, Liu Shan could only come up with a clumsy excuse—feigning illness—to temporarily delay the war.

At the same time, they quickly dispatched people to contact Zhuge Liang and Mi Wei separately to see how to properly handle the matter.

But let's be honest.

Miwei was caught off guard when he learned of this.

It wasn't that he failed to see this trend of public sentiment early on.

But everything is afraid of comparison.

In the original history, after the collapse of the Later Han regime, there was a period of great division that lasted for four centuries.

The journey was marred by the infamous "Five Barbarian Invasions" incident.

Compared to the heavy and long history of my previous life, what I see now is nothing.

The problem is that he was the only one who knew about that part of history that had not yet happened in later generations.

In the current era's universal understanding.

Looking ahead, we can only see four hundred years since Qin Shi Huang unified China and the Han Dynasty came to power.

Of course, there were also periods of turmoil during these four hundred years.

Examples include the end of the Qin Dynasty, the Xin Dynasty, and the Yellow Turban Rebellion in earlier years.

But in a long enough period of peace, these chaotic days seem all the more brief.

So much so that the Rebellion of the Seven States during the reign of Emperor Jing of Han, which lasted only three or four months, was not even worthy of being discussed at the table.

Therefore, we can draw upon historical experiences that contemporary people can learn from.

Chaos and division are temporary.

Peace and unity are what last.

It is only natural.

In Mi Wei's words, his psychological threshold for enduring chaos was much higher than that of people of his time.

of course.

Mi Wei was no longer a political novice.

Faced with this seemingly turbulent situation.

The first thing he did was to figure out who his friends were and who his enemies were.

It is necessary to distinguish who can be united and won over, who can be coerced and bribed, and who must be completely suppressed or even eliminated.

First, there are "frontline staff" like Lu Yu and Xu Miao who actually handle the work.

Of course, they are not enemies.

They should not be treated as enemies either.

To some extent, they are a concrete representative of local public opinion.

It is the foundation upon which the Shu Han state was founded. To undermine one's own foundation is unacceptable.

Therefore, we must fully understand their true demands and then try to resolve them one by one.

In this respect, Mi Wei, the "host," still has some influence to draw upon.

He privately wrote letters to various officials of the rank of two thousand shi (a unit of grain measure) and renowned scholars, inquiring about the difficulties they encountered in their localities.

If the location was nearby, such as Nanyang or Yingru, he would personally go to inspect the counties in order to obtain more accurate first-hand "data".

Although it cannot solve the fundamental problem in a short time, it is enough to give the local people an outlet for their emotions and ease the conflict with Chang'an and Luoyang.

More importantly, through face-to-face communication, Miwei was able to gain the maximum support from these people.

Based on this, Mi Wei joined forces with Zhuge Liang and Guan Yu and Zhang Fei.

Together they announced that they would maintain the fine traditions of "no one without the surname Liu being granted a kingship", "officials of the fiefdoms being appointed uniformly by the imperial court", and "the country being governed by prefectures and counties as a whole".

So we've safely navigated the most dangerous step of this crisis.

The next step was coercion, bribery, suppression, and elimination.

But this step is a bit more difficult to handle.

Are Liao Li and his group considered enemies?
It can be counted, or it can not.

This is because their political views clearly conflicted with those of Zhuge Liang.

However, at the same time, these people had long been excluded from the core power circle of the Shu Han dynasty.

They are truly wealthy and leisurely people.

If you take it too seriously, they might get even more excited.

Take the opportunity to cultivate a persona of someone who dares to offend authority and speaks frankly.

It's as disgusting as a dog skin plaster.

Not to mention that Liao Li also had an old acquaintance named Li Ping (Li Yan) under his tutelage.

Therefore, regarding this group of leisurely officials who followed Liu Shan to Luoyang.

Miwei's attitude was to ignore it.

Utter disregard.

He would lose if he even said a word to them.

Following that were the Cao Wei imperial family members and generals who were recruited or captured in recent years.

Except for a few talented individuals who were appointed.

Most of the time, these people are also idle.

If it weren't for the turmoil in Luoyang, they wouldn't have had anything to do with it.

Now that they dare to get involved, they must naturally bear the corresponding price.

Those confiscated were confiscated, and those stripped of their titles were stripped of their titles.

Those who did not take the opportunity to cause trouble, such as Xiahou Ba, were rewarded to commend their firm stance.

Whether Xiahou Ba truly held a firm stance or simply refrained from causing trouble for Liu Shan out of consideration for his niece, Empress Zhang, remains unknown.

We can only judge by actions, not intentions.

Once these internal relationships are sorted out, the next step is to face external adjustments, or rather, opportunities.

Yes.

This incident involving the petition in Luoyang not only caused turmoil within the Shu Han state.

Furthermore, the involvement of the enemy general Mu Shou brought some additional changes to the already relatively calm battlefield in Hebei.

The most representative of these is Sima Shi, who was recently appointed Protector of the Xianbei by Cao Wei.

He sent someone to Luoyang to surrender, claiming that he had placed Tian Yu, the acting Protector of the Wuhuan, under house arrest, and had persuaded another Protector of the Xianbei, Xie Jun, to lead all the counties of Youzhou except Liaodong to surrender to the Han.

Their condition was that Sima Yi be granted the title of King of Yan and continue to rule Youzhou.

Jie Jun was enfeoffed as the Prince of Dai, with his fiefdom encompassing Dai Commandery in Youzhou and Yanmen Commandery in Bingzhou.

Once the Han court agrees to this condition, they will immediately cooperate with Zhao Yun to send troops to attack Qianzhao.

To be honest, when Liu Shan saw the surrender terms, his first reaction was that Sima Yi had deliberately sent his son to annoy him.

They just reiterated that no one without the surname Liu would be granted a kingship, and now they're demanding two more kingships, and they're even officially granted titles.

Isn't this just plain stirring up trouble?

Therefore, he didn't even intend to relay Sima Shi's conditions to Zhuge Liang in Chang'an and Mi Wei in Yuzhou.

But soon, as Xu Shu's secret letter was passed on, the rulers and ministers of Shu Han had to take the demands of the Sima father and son seriously.

Because Xu Shu said in his letter.

What Sima Shi said was mostly true.

Sima Yi was indeed considering surrendering.

(End of this chapter)