He originally intended to surrender to Wei, so why did he end up restoring Han?

Chapter 102 Put them in a cage (details are extensive, skipping is recommended)

Ultimately, this issue boils down to the difference between "rule by man" and "rule of law." Power follows the person, not the position. If Lu Wan is the General Staff today, then the power of the General Staff is terrifying; if he goes to another department tomorrow to do another job, that power will still follow him to his new position. In other words, Liu Bei's current governance system is still in a very rudimentary state, at best a mercenary group.

Chen Deng, who was bedridden and served as a booster, is a case in point. Although he was previously the Agricultural Commandant and later promoted to the Prefect of Guangling, no matter how his position changed, the intelligence organization he had built in Huaiyin always reported to him.

As a result, since Chen Deng fell ill, the intelligence organization had been in a semi-paralyzed state. The intelligence gathered by the personnel was so sensitive to leaks that they dared not show it to anyone other than Chen Deng, leaving it all piling up on his desk. This, in turn, prevented the intelligence organization from reacting promptly when Cao Cao's spies began their activities, ultimately leading to the successful attack and Lu Wan receiving a serious scolding.

The root cause is that the system architecture is not perfect. In Lu Wan's opinion, it's all Chen Qun's fault. He has been talking about changing the original system since last year, but there's still no progress. Maybe he hasn't even started creating the folders yet.

Completely unaware that it was because Director Lu kept coming up with new ideas that Chen Qun kept revising his plan, Chen Qun's ability not to have a conflict with Lu Wan under these circumstances already demonstrates his good manners.

Chen Qun is clearly more adept at handling this matter, so Lu Wan only intends to offer him some pointers and provide some experience from later generations to avoid pitfalls.

Lu Suo's attention was mainly focused on another matter, because this situation also indicated that Xuzhou lacked a relatively complete written law to clarify the unclear division of powers.

This matter should be addressed sooner rather than later. Who knows what his successors will do if it's delayed? Lu Wan has always been skeptical of the wisdom of his descendants. Although Lu Wan has no great ambitions and only wants a peaceful life, will his successors think the same way? They will probably only feel that they have too little power and need to intensify their efforts to seize it.

However, such a future is still far away. Anyway, Lu Wan is still young and comes from a poor background, so she has plenty of time to change.

"Wen Yuan? When did you arrive?"

Chen Jiao was quite surprised by Lu Wan's arrival. After all, apart from Liu Bei, who was doing nothing, everyone in Xuzhou was working overtime and rolling their eyes. Lu Wan's visit at this time was probably to cause him trouble again.

As Chen Jiao had predicted, Lu Wan's first words were: "Hehehe, Ji Bi, I've come to give you credit."

Upon hearing this, Chen Jiao's face turned pale. Everyone in Xuzhou knew that Lu Wan was a notorious pedant. Every day, he would research a ton of things and then unveil various new technologies at a convenient time. However, these were things that no one had ever seen before, and mastering them required working overtime to learn on their own. Therefore, what he meant by "giving credit" was mostly a thankless task.

"Wen Yuan, tell me the truth, have you come up with something new again?"

Lu Wan revealed an innocent smile: "As expected, nothing can be hidden from Chen Jibi. To be honest, I just talked with Physician Hua Tuo and several other doctors who are treating Prefect Chen a few days ago. We all agreed that a newspaper should be published in Xuzhou."

Chen Jiao knew he was most likely doomed, but in this final moment before the showdown, he wanted to make one last effort, at least to finish the legal work related to the workshop employees: "What does this have to do with me? Shouldn't Wen Yuan be going to see Prefect Mi?"

"I've already taken care of things with him, now it's your turn." Lu Wan planned to play a little trick. First, she would tell Chen Jiao that Mi Zhu had already agreed and get legal support from Chen Jiao. Then, she would take the documents that Chen Jiao had reviewed and go to Mi Zhu, saying that the lord and Ji Bi had both agreed, and only Mi Zhu was left to agree. Mi Zhu would then have no choice but to accept it.

This also brings us to the current civil service in Xuzhou, which is quite unique, specifically divided as follows:

Because Lu Su was a person from later times, he had more experience and knowledge, so he was fully responsible for the strategic planning of Liu Bei's army, formulating macro strategies and coordinating the implementation of various parties.

Chen Qun was in charge of personnel, essentially the head of the organization department. His leadership ensured the systematization and standardization of talent selection, laying the foundation for the regime's transition from a "grassroots" to a "formal" system. Normally, he would remain at the center of governance, but the development of Peinan was too crucial, and the military commander there, Tian Yu, was relatively inexperienced. Therefore, it was better to have such a prominent figure to oversee things.

Chen Deng was in charge of intelligence, which was equivalent to the director of the Security Bureau and the Intelligence Bureau. He also held an administrative position in Guangling.

Before he fell ill, his spies had already thoroughly investigated the Huainan region and parts of the south bank of the Yangtze River. This level of expertise was indeed enough to ensure that Xuzhou would not fall behind in terms of intelligence.

Although Chen Jiao joined relatively late, his unique legal knowledge and talent, coupled with his status as a native of Xuzhou, garnered him considerable support from Xuzhou officials. He is now in charge of law, essentially serving as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and Minister of Justice (Liu Bei had no other legal talent under his command). Upon assuming office, he drafted dozens of suggestions for improving existing legal loopholes, thus successfully securing a place for himself within Liu Bei's inner circle.

Finally, there was Mi Zhu, the Commander-in-Chief of Logistics. All departments of Liu Bei's army depended on him for their livelihood; he was the chief steward of Xuzhou. After being blocked at the door twice by people demanding funds, Liu Bei entrusted the allocation of the budget to Mi Zhu. Mi Zhu couldn't refuse, after all, he had chosen his own lord.

These five people formed Liu Bei's civil service team, which Liu Bei was quite satisfied with. They were all talented, and he didn't have to worry about them doing anything wrong. Therefore, Liu Bei could confidently delegate power and go out to enjoy himself.

Chen Jiao's curiosity was suddenly piqued by Lu Wan's words. Since both the lord and Zi Zhong had agreed to it, it seemed to be quite useful. So he asked, "Wen Yuan, I'm a little curious, what exactly is this newspaper?"

"It's a pretty simple thing. It's about publishing the main problems, research ideas and methods, and experimental results of current medical research in a booklet. The booklet isn't very long, maybe only a few hundred thousand words per issue."

"How many? Hundreds of thousands of words?" Chen Jiao was a little stunned. Even if all the classics he had read were added together, they couldn't exceed that number. Of course, if all the books he had read were included, then it wouldn't be enough.

"This is my estimate, and it's a rather conservative one. In my opinion, it might be over a million words in one issue."

"Tsk tsk tsk, haha." Chen Jiao didn't know that Lu Wan was exaggerating to some extent, and given the level of medical research in the Eastern Han Dynasty, this journal would probably only be published once every six months.

"Why did you suddenly decide to do this? Aren't you in charge of workshop construction and bandit suppression right now?"

"It was seeing Yuanlong and the doctors who treated him that gave me this idea. Ji Bi, you see, Yuanlong is from a prominent family and is also a high-ranking official, so when he gets sick, he can enjoy almost the best medical care in the Han Dynasty. But ordinary people can only suffer from minor illnesses and endure major ones. If this journal can attract famous doctors from other parts of the Han Dynasty to conduct research together, they might be able to develop some more advanced and cheaper prescriptions so that ordinary people can also use medicine."

"The research findings of renowned doctors are recorded here, so there is no fear of excellent skills being lost in the future. In this sense, this can also be considered a history book of medical development."

"Moreover, there is another important point. This model can also be applied to other areas. For example, our state governor's office could also create a newspaper specifically for publishing official information, so that lower-level officials would know the direction of our policies going forward."

Chen Jiao thought about it for a moment and realized that this matter did indeed have potential, so she raised its priority in her mind considerably. Then she asked, "Hmph—, Chiyu, tell me, what exactly do you want us to do?"

"Of course, it's still about legal issues—" Lu Wan then selectively shared some of her previous concerns with Chen Jiao.

Chen Jiao immediately got to work, picking up his pen to take notes on the key points of Lu Wan's words. After preparing his notes, he immediately asked Lu Wan for her opinion on this matter: "The most important thing in law is to draw clear lines. Does 'publication' refer to official workshops, private bookstores, or even private printing? Are works written on bamboo slips, silk, or new paper subject to the same punishment?"

"They're all included, because criminals want to print text, so for them, any medium will do, as long as it works. As law enforcement, we should also examine everything that can serve as a carrier of knowledge. Of course, this would be a lot of work, so we could also only examine things that need to be printed by official printing plants."

Chen Jiao's professionalism was on full display at this moment: "In my opinion, this should not be generalized, but rather treated differently. Official publications, such as medical journals and agricultural guidelines, should be strictly reviewed to ensure their authority and accuracy."

"For commercial or academic publications, the focus is on whether they involve sensitive content. If the review is passed without major issues, they are given greater freedom in terms of content."

"As for privately printed materials such as poetry collections and anthologies, a registration system can be implemented instead of an approval system. Unless someone accuses them of violating the law, they will not be interfered with."

"What does General Lu think of this tiered system?"

"Very good, I have no objection." What objection could Lu Wan have? He's not a law student.

The two then discussed this topic further, and Chen Jiao helped Lu Wan correct many oversights, such as the problem that overly strict control might lead to a weakening of cultural vitality, as well as the specific distinctions between various concepts, such as the difference between "spreading rumors" and "talking about politics".

Lu Suo also truly realized how much a person well-versed in the law could achieve in this field, and he admired him greatly.

Chen Jiao carefully placed the paper covered in writing into a burlap sack, with the words "Top Secret" clearly written on it. After tidying it up, Chen Jiao took a few sips of water and then said, "Wen Yuan must have come here for more than just this, right? Since you've come all this way, just tell me."

This time, Lu Wan got straight to the point: "I want to establish a specific law to define the powers of my Chief of the General Staff: the General Staff is the Lord's military advisory and planning execution agency. Its core powers are to be responsible for strategic planning, military intelligence analysis, map surveying, coordinating operations of various armies, and formulating training outlines."

"The boundaries of their authority are: they have the right to 'coordinate' the logistics of various armies, but not the right to 'directly command' the logistics departments. They have the right to 'issue operational plans,' but the final 'troop deployment order' must be signed and taken effect by the lord or the frontline commander. Furthermore, their relationship with local administrative officials is one of 'cooperation,' not subordination."

After hearing this, Chen Jiao's expression instantly turned very serious, and he asked in a deep voice, "—Is someone attacking you?"

It's no wonder Chen Jiao's expression suddenly changed. This behavior was tantamount to starting a meaningless political dispute. Xuzhou's current focus was on development, not internal purges. Those who wanted to cause trouble were mostly people with ulterior motives. If Lu Wan were really brought down, Xuzhou would definitely be engulfed in a storm.

However, Lu Wan's words softened Chen Jiao's tone: "No, this is also a question I've been thinking about (lying). You must be able to sense that something is wrong. Various development projects in Xuzhou are coming to me. This is not something a mature system should be doing."

Chen Jiao mentally assessed the situation and concluded that Lu Wan must have been provoked by something and was starting to talk nonsense. He also wanted to test what Lu Wan was up to, so he asked, "But you really do have the most expertise in the workshops and tax certificates. If you don't provide guidance in these areas, your subordinates won't even be able to carry out their work properly."

"Yes, just like Yuan Long, the entire intelligence agency was thrown into chaos when he fell. That's exactly what I'm worried about. So many things require someone to take the lead to be carried out, and if that person is gone one day, all of these things will come to a standstill."

""

Chen Jiao put down his pen, licked his upper palate, and looked at Lu Wan as if she were an unknown creature. In all his life, he had only ever seen those who sought power, and this was the first time he had seen someone who refused to give it away.

"Then, if I may be so blunt, Wenyuan, isn't it more important for you to find someone who can assist you and, incidentally, inherit your mantle, rather than to actually enact a law?"

>