Has the Han Dynasty been restored today?

The twelfth year of Jianxing in the Han Dynasty.

Autumn, September, Chengdu.

The rain had been falling intermittently since last night and continued to drizzle until Chenshi (7-9 AM). Imperial guards, clad in black armor and red turbans, and wearing bamboo hats, stood guard on both sides of the palace gates, holding long halberds, standing as still as statues. At this moment, their gazes, piercing through the rain, were fixed on a carriage that had just arrived from the east.

The coachman stopped the carriage five zhang away from the palace gate and carefully lifted the curtain. Upon seeing this, the eunuch who had been waiting outside the palace gate for a long time hurriedly stepped forward with a blue umbrella.

"Minister Chen, Minister Chen, please get out of the carriage quickly. His Majesty has not eaten or drunk anything since last night, and we have all tried to persuade him to stop. After much thought, we believe that since you are closest to His Majesty, you might be able to persuade him. It just so happens that His Majesty also misses you, so we have requested permission to summon you to the palace."

Chen Zhi leaned forward slightly, raised his eyebrows, and with a sharp gaze, first surveyed the rain outside the carriage, then looked directly at the eunuch:

"Huang Liu, is His Majesty in good health? Why is Attendant Dong not paying any attention?"

In Chen Zhi's memory, Huang Liu was just twenty years old. He had only started to gain favor with the emperor last year and was appointed as a junior eunuch in early summer this year.

The eunuch Huang Liu's voice was tinged with sobs: "If things were alright, why would we be in such a hurry to summon the Vice Minister? The news of the Prime Minister's death arrived in Chengdu yesterday afternoon, and His Majesty set up a memorial tablet in the palace that evening to pay his respects, sitting there all night. Vice Minister Dong has requested an audience several times, but His Majesty has refused to see him... We and the other eunuchs are truly at our wits' end. We beg the Vice Minister to come and persuade him quickly."

"I understand." Chen Zhi nodded, dismounted, and stood under Huang Liu's umbrella.

The two walked under the same umbrella.

After hastily removing his sword and verifying his official credentials at the palace gate, Chen Zhi had only taken a few steps inside when he suddenly stopped, leaving Huang Liu, who was holding an umbrella, completely puzzled.

"Minister, you'd better hurry up."

Amidst the sounds of wind and rain, Chen Zhi sighed and said with lowered eyes, "You're too short. It's better for me to hold the umbrella myself than for you to do it. Otherwise, my clothes will be half-soaked by the time we get to the back hall, and I might catch a cold again. Huang Liu, please bear with it for now."

Chen Zhi was over eight feet tall, with sword-like eyebrows and bright eyes, a majestic and imposing appearance, and a dignified presence. It was indeed incongruous for him to share an umbrella with Huang Liu, who was less than seven feet tall. It was no exaggeration to say that they would get wet.

Foreign officials were not allowed to carry any utensils inside the palace, including umbrellas. This was a rule that existed in the palace during the reign of Emperor Guangwu of the Later Han Dynasty.

Huang Liu and Chen Zhi exchanged a glance, paused for a moment, then nodded repeatedly. Huang Liu pushed the umbrella handle into Chen Zhi's hand, bent over, took a step to the side and stepped into the rain, and said with his head bowed, "I am but a humble servant. His Majesty is waiting for the Vice Minister in Chonghua Palace. This is the most important matter at present. The Vice Minister need not worry about me."

"Thank you for your trouble." Chen Zhi nodded, then strode towards Chonghua Palace, with Huang Liu hurrying behind in the rain.

Chengdu is known as a "layered city" or "multi-layered city". Inside the outer city wall are two inner cities, "Shaocheng" and "Dacheng", which existed during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han. Beyond the outer city are several smaller functional cities, such as Jinguan City and Cheguan City.

At the beginning of his reign as Emperor Zhaolie (Liu Bei), he was preoccupied with numerous affairs and internal and external troubles, leaving him no time for large-scale construction. He hastily used the former capital of Yizhou as his palace. After the defeat at Yiling, Liu Bei summoned Chancellor Zhuge Liang to Baidi City and ordered him to build a palace in the northern suburbs of Chengdu.

The palace city used the northern city wall of Chengdu as its southern wall, and was more than a mile long and wide, which made it look somewhat cramped and confined, lacking the dignified layout of a proper imperial palace in the Han Dynasty. In both the Former and Later Han Dynasties, in large Han capitals like Luoyang and Chang'an, the palace city was located in the center of the city and was protected by all sides.

Only the Shu Han Palace was located in the north of the city, near Wudan Mountain, where Emperor Zhaolie once set up an altar to worship Heaven and Earth and ascended to the throne. When Liu Bei first conceived the idea of ​​building this palace, there was a consensus among the emperor and his ministers that Shu Han would eventually "return to its old capital," and it wouldn't matter if the palace in Shu was somewhat hasty.

The palace is in the north, and the king's heart also faces north.

However, Emperor Zhaolie Liu Bei, who ordered the construction of the city, was no longer alive, and Prime Minister Zhuge Liang, who was ordered to build the city and determined to launch a northern expedition, had just passed away.

Things are wrong.

Outside Chonghua Hall, Chen Zhi took off his shoes and took out a gold ingot from his sleeve, handing it to Huang Liu, who was soaking wet. After watching Huang Liu carefully put the gold ingot away, Chen Zhi straightened his clothes before entering the hall. Huang Liu closed the hall door behind him, leaving only a crack for him to observe.

It was a classic tradition in the Han Dynasty for eunuchs to accept bribes.

Some court officials who had frequent dealings with the palace were willing to give money, such as Chen Zhi. Most officials, however, did not have the opportunity to do so.

The officials in the Prime Minister's office were neither willing nor able to pay, and the eunuchs dared not accept it. In the present-day Shu Han dynasty, the vast majority of powerful officials were subordinates of the Prime Minister's office.

Therefore, the palace eunuchs were always extremely considerate and friendly whenever they saw Chen Zhi. Since the eunuchs had received money and had a good relationship with Emperor Liu Shan, Chen Zhi didn't need to be overly careful or polite in his words.

Inside the Chonghua Hall, Emperor Liu Shan, dressed in plain clothes and a plain crown, knelt on a hard mat, his back hunched and head bowed. He was limp and listless, as if all his strength had been drained, and he made no movement or sound. About ten feet in front of Liu Shan, there was a hastily written memorial tablet for the Prime Minister.

Chen Zhi, seeing this from afar, tiptoed to a spot two zhang behind Liu Shan and bowed respectfully.

"Your Majesty, please accept my condolences."

Perhaps because he had cried too much the day before and hadn't slept all night, when Liu Shan turned around, Chen Zhi only saw a sad, tired, and haggard appearance with red eyes.

"It's Fengzong... Fengzong, I have lost my late emperor, and now my prime minister is gone too. I... I... my heart is breaking..."

Then she started crying again.

Politics is about the hearts of the people. Even if Chen Zhi had a thousand thoughts in his mind, this was not a suitable time to discuss serious matters.

The best strategy when communicating with someone who has experienced a bereavement is to immerse yourself in their grief.

Chen Zhi took two steps forward and knelt on the blue brick floor beside Liu Shan. He removed his official hat and placed it lightly on his knees. He first bowed three times to the memorial tablet of Prime Minister Zhuge Liang, and then said softly, "Your Majesty, I have been an orphan since childhood, and I have no father. In my family... alas, there are no more relatives with the same surname left."

Liu Shan was taken aback at first, then began to weep again, pounding the ground with his fist: "My courtesy name is Gongsi, and yours is Fengzong. I still have brothers to carry on the Liu family line, but you have only one to offer sacrifices to our ancestors. Fengzong and I are in the same boat, in the same boat!"

Seeing Liu Shan so grief-stricken, Chen Zhi was also saddened. Taking advantage of the situation and the emotions involved, he knelt down and wept with Liu Shan, raising his left sleeve to cover his face.

The two men, the emperor and his minister, sobbed as they spoke in hushed tones.

The eunuch Huang Liu peeked through the crack in the door and, seeing the situation, stamped his feet in exasperation.

Minister Chen, Minister Chen, I invited you here to advise His Majesty to take care of himself and eat something, so why are you crying too?

Liu Shan had his reasons for weeping, and Chen Zhi had his own reasons for weeping.

Chen Zhi wept because he missed his hometown.

Last night around midnight, a soul from the future transmigrated into this body, inheriting all of the original owner's memories. The original owner of this body was Chen Zhi, who had just recovered from a cold.

They come, the security.

He then traveled the world as "Chen Zhi," and let him indulge in a good cry at this moment!

In the original timeline, he was a young official who had spent several years working his way up in the imperial court. Coming from a wealthy family, with no shortage of career advancement and wealth, he was obsessed with his career, working tirelessly day and night, and hadn't even had time to get married. He often read online novels for leisure. On his thirtieth birthday, he was working overtime until late at night as usual. Driving home at midnight, perhaps due to a stroke of luck, or perhaps encountering some kind of time distortion, he couldn't remember anything. In short, when he woke up again, he had arrived in Chengdu during the Three Kingdoms period.

The people here refer to their regime as "Han" or "Ji Han." Following the order of seniority—eldest, second, third, and youngest—it was the third Han dynasty established by the Liu family, after the Former Han of Emperor Gaozu (Liu Bang) and the Later Han of Emperor Guangwu (Liu Xiu).

Of course, the name "Ji Han" was only fully recognized within the territory of Yizhou. Emperor Sun Quan of Wu and the Wu government referred to it as "Han" in official documents, but privately it was still called "Shu." The Wei state, which occupied the north, contemptuously referred to it as "Shu," "Shu bandits," or "Western bandits."

The insults were mutual. The Shu Han court was equally unkind to the states of Wei and Wu, frequently calling them Wei traitors, Wu dogs, and northern bandits, using equally offensive language.

After Chen Zhi transmigrated, he spent the night in a daze. The next morning, he had just fully woken up when his cousin Xu You told him about the death of Prime Minister Zhuge Liang in the Northern Expedition. He then answered the summons to the palace.

Now that we've come to this era, who wouldn't want to revive the Han Dynasty?

Not to mention that he transmigrated into such an identity.

Chen Zhi felt he had an inescapable responsibility.