Three Kingdoms New Emperor

Chapter 168 The End of Chang'an

The Battle of Chang'an is finally over, but this victory is not without price.On the contrary, the entire Chang'an paid an extremely heavy price for this battle.

First of all, Lu Zhi, a great scholar among the scholar-bureaucrat class who is rarely recognized by Liu Xie, is a Beizhong Lang general and minister with both civil and military skills in the Han Dynasty, and Lu Zigan, a generation of Han Dynasty veterans.In the battle of Chang'an, he was exhausted and suffered from old illnesses. Finally, seeing that the rebels in Chang'an were wiped out, he finally closed his eyes with a smile.

Liu Xie, who came down from Bailiang Terrace, received such bad news immediately.This made him finally show a somewhat relaxed face, suddenly darkened, and tears continued.

At that moment, Liu Xie didn't understand why he shed tears without warning.In fact, he didn't have much contact with Lu Zhi. On the eve of plotting against Dong Zhuo, he cared more about Huangfusong and Zhu Jun, the two military generals of the Han Dynasty's elders, but Lu Zhi, a scholar-bureaucrat and Confucian general, It is somewhat contradictory.

However, if you think about it carefully, although Lu Zhi is a scholar, he is completely different from those scholars Liu Xie has seen who are chasing fame and not being practical.Whenever the Han Dynasty was in a difficult moment, Lu Zhi always stood up and fought to the death.And when the court was a little peaceful, he would hide in the valley, teach and educate people, and even ignored Liu Xie's recruitment.

Lu Zhi was indeed disappointed. There is no doubt that the Han government failed him and gave him indelible trauma and pain.But even under such circumstances, he still upholds the Confucian ethics of 'If you are rich, you can help the world, and if you are poor, you can be alone'... No, he actually did better than these.Because, he was desperate in times of crisis; and when he lived in seclusion, he did not forget to train a group of excellent and real scholars for the court.

Looking at Lu Zhi's old but smiling face on the stretcher, and thinking about the few meetings with Lu Zhi, for some reason, Liu Xie suddenly felt an indescribable shock in his heart.Faced with such a person, he felt that the entire Han Dynasty and the imperial court did not rely on any power structure and system to operate, and more, they actually relied on great men like Lu Zhi.

"Master Lu, you rest in peace. I already understand your ideals. For this ideal, even if I have a chance, I will do my best to seek a stable future for the people of the Han Dynasty!" Liu Xie gently Covering Lu Zhi's smiling and desolate face with a white cloth, his hands trembled slightly.Especially, when he saw the child kneeling in front of him but sobbing silently, he didn't know what to say.

This child wearing a white scarf is Lu Yu, Lu Zhi's only son left in this world.Lu Zhi had three sons in his life, the eldest son and the second son both died for the court during the war.Lu Yu is the youngest son of Lu Zhi in his later years, only ten years old this year.However, Lu Yu is indeed worthy of being Lu Zhi's son. When he grew up, he became a famous Confucian scholar and politician like Lu Zhi. He served successively five monarchs from Cao Cao to Cao Mao, and finally one of the three princes of Wei Sakong.

"Before Master Lu died, do you have any last words for me?" Liu Xie silently put his hand on Lu Yu's shoulder. He knew that this child had endured more than him, but he could not comfort him.Because when Lu Zhi was dying of illness, he, a child, stayed by his side. Liu Xie couldn't believe how painful such a scene must be.

"My father had no last words to His Majesty before he died. He only regretted that His Majesty was born ten years later, so that my father never saw the moment when the Han Dynasty returned to prosperity." Little Lu Yu spoke with grief, Liu Xie felt his thin body silently Trembling, but still upholding the courtesy of a monarch and minister, he took out two letters and handed them to Liu Xiedao: "These are two suicide notes written by my father on his deathbed, and they were left to his disciples Gongsun Zan and Liu Bei respectively. It is a matter of submitting to the imperial court."

Liu Xie opened it with trembling hands, and it was written all over it with meticulous handwriting. It was indeed the last words Lu Yu guessed to persuade Gongsun Zan and Liu Bei.The handwriting on the suicide note was blurred and crooked, not like Lu Zhi's usual rigor and orderliness. There were specks of dark color between the lines, which were obviously blood stains from coughing.It is conceivable that these two suicide notes were sorted out by Lu Zhi in what kind of pain on the stretcher?

Liu Xie's eye circles were hot, his nose was sore, and the suicide note looked blurry.These two suicide notes dealt Liu Xie the final heavy blow, which made him hug Lu Yu and burst into tears.

The officials and soldiers surrounding him, as well as Lu Zhi's disciples, also shed tears, and the heaven and the earth mourn together.

After a long time, Liu Xie let go of Lu Yu, calmed down his mood by arranging his robes, and showed the air of the emperor of the Han Dynasty, choked up and said: "Use the best coffin to enshrine Master Lu's body, Buried in Chang'an; sent envoys to Lu Shi's original home, and erected steles and inscriptions on Lu Shi's great achievements in his life for future generations to look up to; Mr. Lu's sacrifice to Taixue is worthy of the gift of Confucius!"

This posthumous title can be described as extremely favored.Especially the last one broke the Confucian precedent and left everyone present stunned.

Among the sages recognized by Confucianism, apart from the sub-sage Mencius, even Dong Zhongshu, who unified Confucianism, had never received such preferential treatment.

Such a conferment obviously frightened Lu Yu, and he didn't know if he had the right to refuse, so he kowtowed to Liu Xie and said, "Your Majesty, absolutely, absolutely not..."

"Don't worry, I will handle this matter properly as soon as I say it." Of course Liu Xie knew what Lu Yu was worried about, but he didn't take it to heart at all.After patting Lu Yu's shoulder again, he held Lu Yu up and said, "Brother Lu, since you are Master Lu's son, you should continue to enjoy Master Lu's food, so as to ensure that the Lu family will not be lonely and helpless. From then on, you After studying hard and being motivated, I look forward to seeing a junior who inherits Master Lu's mantle."

"But, but, my father was not a Marquis before his death..." Lu Yu couldn't understand Liu Xie's words. Although Lu Zhi had a great reputation during his lifetime, his official position was not smooth, and he was never a Marquis.

"Before he was alive, he was not a Marquis, but now he is the Zhuohou of my great man!" Liu Xie said, raising his arms, and once again gave Lu Yu an unimaginable gift.

Lu Zhi is from Zhuojun, and he and Liu Bei are fellow villagers.In Liu Xie's opinion, it is most appropriate to grant Zhuojun to Lu Zhi.Although it is impossible for Lu Yu to get a grain of grain from Zhuojun, it will be provided by the court.Moreover, Liu Xie's move is also declaring to the world that the world of this big man still belongs to his Liu family.

Undoubtedly, after Liu Xie regained his emotions, all the seals he made to Lu Zhi were more or less political.But Liu Xie didn't think there was anything wrong with these. Since Lu Zhi was a national scholar, he wanted to treat him as a national scholar.If Lu Zhi Jiuquan knew about it, he would probably laugh at Liu Xie's move.

After chasing after Lu Zhi, Liu Xie turned his head and looked at Xun You beside him. He seemed to have thought of something, and said again: "Gongda, after returning to the mansion, please ask Gongda to inform the elders of Xun's family that I intend to send you Xun Sikong was also buried in Chang'an. Similarly, people will engrave books and set up monuments in his hometown. I plan to open a tomb in Chang'an and name it "Heroic Soul Tomb" to honor those who have contributed to the Han court. His ministers are all buried in this tomb for future generations to look up and pay homage to.”

After the execution of Dong, although the former Sikong Xun Shuang had been posthumously named by Wang Yun, the burial of his remains has not been settled for a long time.People in this era still pay attention to the tradition of returning fallen leaves to their roots, hoping to bury the remains in their original places.

But as soon as Lu Zhi made this example, anyone with a brain would understand what it meant.Although such actions are destined to be kidnapped by the Han Dynasty court, the problem is, you have to think clearly, do you have the right to lie in this cemetery after death?

An astute person like Xun You could hear Liu Xie's subtext almost before Liu Xie's words fell. It is the great honor of the Xun family."

Afterwards, Liu Xie made inferences, looked at Xu Rong who was lying on a stretcher with his lips tight but unable to speak, and said to Xu Rong with regretful eyes: "General Xu, I heard that today's battle, the veterans you brought from Liaodong are for Guarding Chang'an, almost all of them were buried here. The general's soldiers regard Chang'an as their home, how can I make them die without a place to live?"

"Beside the Tomb of Heroic Souls, I will build another larger tomb of loyal bones. The bones of the soldiers who gave their lives for Chang'an will be buried in it. I will tell the world about these two cemeteries. How could such a heroic and loyal soul be broken!"

The loyal bones are buried in the green mountains, and the heroic souls are left in the heaven and earth.

After Xu Rong silently listened to Liu Xie's words, the tall and traumatized man silently shed tears of unknown affection on the stretcher.

After taking care of these things, Liu Xie looked around at everyone, but he didn't see the person he most wanted to see.So, he turned back to Xu Huang and asked, "Gong Ming, why don't you see Jia Hu...Jia Xiaowei?"

The name of Jia Huhu, the fox, is so deeply engraved in history that Liu Xie almost blurted out this title in full view.Fortunately, Liu Xie's reaction was not slow, and he changed his words at the last moment.However, this time Chang'an was able to defend, Jia Xu's contribution is really indelible, and it is not an exaggeration to say that Qingtian escorted him.

What's more, Liu Xie has only heard of Jia Xu by his name and never seen him after traveling for such a long time.Given the opportunity today, he naturally didn't want to let it go.

But Xu Huang shook his head and said, "Lieutenant Jia said that the people in Chang'an probably the last thing they want to see at this time are the people from Xiliang. So, he took General Zhang to chase down the fleeing rebels."

Liu Xie nodded, feeling really convinced of Jia Xu in his heart.This old guy always takes one step at a time and counts two steps at a time, even considering the emotions of the people in Chang'an. He really deserves to be the most penetrating fox in the late Han Dynasty.Fortunately, the two of them had a good start of cooperation this time, and the opportunity to meet in the future cannot be missed.

"Let's go back to Weiyang Palace first, the battle of Chang'an is over. But the next thing, I'm afraid it will not be easy at all." Liu Xie helped Lu Yu up with his own hands, and looked at the dilapidated Weiyang Palace with him.

There, there is still the last hurdle that needs to be dealt with by him.And, a lover who is waiting to see him...

(End of this chapter)