"Zhongjing, what kind of official did you buy?"
After Liu Qi invited Zhang Ji in and saw the ceremony, he smiled and asked questions.
Hearing this question, Zhang Ji sighed and said hesitantly: "Da, da... Da Changqiu Jiazhong Changshi..."
Liu Qi was stunned: "Huh? Eunuch? Zhongjing, are you okay?"
Zhang Ji quickly shook his head: "No, it's not eunuchs. There are no eunuchs in the Han Dynasty now! The posts of Dachangqiu and Zhongchangshi are all made by scholars!"
Liu Qi nodded: "Oh, that's it." He paused and then asked: "Then does this emperor have..."
Zhang Ji still shook his head and said with a wry smile: "It's hard to say... He even made me the regular attendant of Da Changqiu Jiazhong!"
"This..." Liu Qi's brows also tightened. His family had invested a lot of money in Liu Xie, the little emperor. If he is really crazy, how will this investment be recovered? When he was unsure, the boy next to him suddenly interrupted.
"Master, Liang has something to say."
Liu Qi looked back at Zhuge Liang: "A Liang, what do you want to say?"
Zhuge Liang smiled and said: "My eldest son, Liang thought that the emperor had figured out Mr. Zhongjing's intention, so he appointed Mr. Zhongjing as a regular attendant in the Great Changqiu period."
Liu Qi thought for a moment and frowned: "This emperor is too generous..."
Zhuge Liang smiled and said: "My lord, if the emperor is really capable of pinching and calculating, then his tolerance will not be small."
Liu Qi thought for a while and asked, "Ah Liang, do you think he can really pinch you?"
Zhuge Liang shook his head: "Master, it's hard to say... Zhang Ji's death, Xuande's birth, and the defeats of Yang Feng and Han Xian are all real, right? I didn't really believe it at first. The emperor can make calculations, but if the facts are there, you have to believe it! Being the emperor is indeed a bit magical!"
Liu Qi nodded: "That's right!" He thought for a while, "I don't know if the emperor will take into account that you, Ah Liang, will ask the governor of Yuzhang for your uncle Zhuge Yinyi."
Zhang Ji took the question with a wry smile and said, "Boyu, the emperor may have already figured it out!"
"Has it been calculated? How can you see it?" Liu Qi asked.
Zhang Ji said: "The emperor just told me about opening an official shop to sell officials... He said: From now on, all the governors and ministers outside the direct jurisdiction of the imperial court who want to get the status granted by me must pay a fee." Five baht is worth 20 million, while the state pastor and governor need to pay 10 million!"
"This really requires Ming Dynasty to sell its official position generously! This, this..." Liu Qi looked surprised and didn't know what to say.
Zhuge Liang laughed: "Master, this is a good thing!"
Liu Qi glanced at him and said in his heart: Of course it's a good thing for you! With 20 million from our family, your uncle will be the governor of Yuzhang! Your uncle Zhuge Xuan's son Zhuge Dan is still a little baby. If he died a little earlier, you might be able to inherit a Yuzhang prefect!
Zhuge Liang added: "It is better to clearly state the price than to make a blind promise! Besides, now Liu Gong has enough money and food, while Liu Yangzhou is poor. If they can compete with Liu Yangzhou to see who has more money, Liu Gong and his uncle will definitely win. Now. And Yuzhang County has vast land and rich products. It can be as big as a state in the north. Such a large county can be bought for 20 million, which is not expensive!"
Liu Qi nodded: "Twenty million can buy a Yuzhang County... No, as long as you can buy half of a Yuzhang County, it is a very good deal!"
Yuzhang was a real large county, and its territory was roughly the same as that of Jiangxi Province in later generations! It is said to be a county, but its area is as large as a state in the north! Not to mention spending 20 million, even if it can be done with 100 million, it is still a good deal!
Moreover, Sun Ce, who had a grudge against Liu Biao for killing his father, was rapidly rising in Jiangdong. He had already taken over the two major counties of Wu County and Kuaiji County, and actually controlled the eastern part of Danyang County (the western part of Danyang was the territory of the Shanyue people, so it was difficult to Actual control), his next target is Yuzhang County.
If Sun Ce were to capture Yuzhang County, would Liu Biao and Huang Zu be able to sleep peacefully? Therefore, it is also very beneficial for Liu Biao and Liu Qi to build a "vassal" in Yuzhang County to serve as a human shield and block the Sun family's westward march.
Liu Qi had already made up his mind, so he turned to Zhang Ji and said, "Zhongjing, you and Cai Degui go to Cao's barracks outside the city and inform Cao Mengde of the emperor's idea of selling his official position to raise money."
"Okay, I'm going to visit Cao Ying right now."
Liu Qi said to Zhuge Liang again: "Ah Liang, let's go to the palace to meet the emperor together!"
Zhuge Liang looked excited and saluted Liu Qi: "Wei!"
...
"Lieutenant Yang, Zhang Sikong, Chunyu Situ, General Dong Wei, General Fu Han... what do you think?"
In the lobby of Luyang County Temple, Liu Xie informed Yang Biao, Zhang Xi, Chunyu Jia, Dong Cheng, Fu Wan and others of his plan to "open an official shop", and then asked for their opinions.
"Tianjia, although the court is very short of money today, it is still a bit inappropriate to openly sell one's official position!"
"Tianjia, you must not do this! If the court openly sells its officials, I am afraid that in the future all the governors, governors and prime ministers in the world will be greedy and despicable people..."
"Tianjia, in the past, the late emperor opened the official market in Xiyuan, which caused the official administration to be so bad that the world was in chaos! You can't make the same mistake again!"
"In the Tianjia, selling one's official position and conferring title is a last resort, but now that the Han Dynasty is declining, we must not do anything to lose people's hearts again!"
Liu Xie listened to the heartbreaking words of several ministers, but he didn't mean to be angry at all. The smile on his face became even bigger, and he shook his head while laughing. When the ministers below saw Liu Xie's expression, their hearts ached. They stopped saying anything and looked at the little emperor intently.
"Dear ministers," Liu Xie said with a smile, "you have misunderstood! I ask you, do I still have officials for sale? Of course, I can still sell the officials of the imperial court... But I will not sell those officials, you can rest assured!
What is for sale is the title of county governor, prime minister, governor, and state shepherd! It's just a title. Now, who will serve as governors, governors, governors, governors, and state shepherds? Is it up to me to decide?
Lieutenant Yang, I want to appoint you as the shepherd of Jizhou. Will Yuan Benchu make room for you? Zhang Sikong, I want to send you as a shepherd in Yizhou. Can Liu Jiyu make way for you? Chunyu Situ, I will grant you the position of Xuzhou Shepherd. Can Lu Fengxian listen to you? "
At this time, several ministers were speechless, but their brows furrowed more tightly - why did the Tian family tell all the truth?
Seeing that everyone was speechless, the little emperor smiled and said: "My lords, let me tell you what's on my mind! I don't expect this big man to return to what he was like in the Zhongping period... I just want to be A big man named King Zhou Ping! For me now, it is not easy to be an emperor like King Zhou Ping!"
The little emperor had publicly stated that he wanted to be the "Emperor of Luoyi" long before Yang Feng and Han Xian sent troops to attack Luyang!
Now he said in front of a group of ministers that he wanted to be "King Ping of Zhou"!
This meaning couldn't be more clear, that is, to be the co-lord of the world like the Emperor of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.
Now the ministers didn't know how to remonstrate with Liu Xie, because the little emperor was right. King Ping of Zhou still had more than a hundred miles of land directly under the jurisdiction of Luoyi, and he still had an army that was somewhat loyal to the royal family. Maybe There are hundreds of thousands of people. Moreover, Luoyi was still the first-class industrial and commercial city in the world at that time, and it could also provide a large amount of taxes to the royal family.
There was silence in the lobby of Luyang County Temple, and several ministers were speechless. I don’t know how long it took, but I heard the little emperor sigh: "Let me do the math!"
Count again? Do you want to count it out?
"Pap, tap..."
The sound of the abacus rang out, and the little emperor muttered: "If I give Cao Mengde jurisdiction over the Henan Yin territory east of Gongxian and south of Songshan, I will still have Luoyang, Pingxian, and Yanshi left. , Fengshi, Henan, Guxian, Pingyin, Xincheng, and Gongxian, a total of nine counties... These territories are now similar to Baidi. If I want to be the emperor of Luoyi there, I will always recruit refugees. Let's cultivate the fields and repair the city, right?
If a county can recruit 10,000 refugee households, that would be 90,000 refugee households, and each household would be allocated 100 acres of land (Hanmu), which would be 9 million acres! To reclaim all these fields, it is necessary to have cattle, farm tools, seeds, build dams and ditches, and provide several months of food rations for the refugees...
In addition, Luoyang City always needs to be repaired... Even if everything is kept simple, the court, officials and me must have a place where we can settle down and live, right? If you add up all kinds of things together, I'm afraid there won't be one billion or eighty million, so it may not be enough! "
After finishing the abacus, Liu Xie looked at the minister below with a wry smile, "You all tell me, if I didn't sell my official position, would I be able to make up this one billion and eighty million? Without this one billion and eighty million, this big man would... .....Can it still gain a foothold in Luoyi? If the Han Dynasty cannot gain a foothold in Luoyi, then it may not be another Spring and Autumn Period in the future!"
Yang Biao, Zhang Xi, Chunyu Jia, Dong Cheng, Fu Wan and others were all silent.
The little emperor is right... If a big man wants to survive, he must at least have a "Luoyi"! And to support "Luoyi", we have to spend a lot of money!
This money... other than selling an official position, where else can I get this money?
The question now is probably not whether to sell one's official position, but how much money can be raised by selling one's official position?
Yang Biao, Zhang Xi, Chunyu Jia, Dong Cheng, and Fu Wan, who are already at the top of the Han Dynasty's ranks, certainly sincerely hope that the Luoyi court can be established.
Because of the Luoyi court, they had three nobles and nine ministers. They even had the opportunity to use the little remaining authority of the Luoyi court to gain a status as a vassal for themselves.
If the "Luoyi Imperial Court" is gone, they will have no choice but to take refuge in Yuan Shao, Cao Cao, and Liu Biao... It seems that this official still has to be sold!
...
"Tianjia, Liu Boyu, the lieutenant of the Northern Army, and Zhuge Liang, who is in charge of Yuzhang County, are asking for an audience!"
"who?"
In the lobby of the Luyang County Temple, I was discussing with Xu Huang, Feng Qi, and Xi Jiuqian, three former Baibo Yellow Turban thieves, how to recruit refugees who believed in Taiping Dao from Hedong County, Hongnong County, and Bingzhou after the court returned to Luoyang. The Emperor suddenly heard a very familiar name from Yang Xiu, the Huangmen servant.
"Tianjia, Liu Boyu wants to see you." Yang Xiu said.
"There is one more!" Liu Xie looked back, "Dezu, did you just say two names?"
Yang Xiu was stunned for a moment, nodded and said, "There is another person who works in Yuzhang County, Zhuge Liang."
"Yuzhang County is engaged in Zhuge Liang? Is there really Zhuge Liang?" Liu Xie couldn't believe his ears, "Why did he come to Luyang?"
Yang Xiu answered truthfully: "Tianjia, this Zhuge Liang is here to buy an official position!"
Zhuge Liang... buying an official position?
Liu Xie even suspected that there was more than one Zhuge Liang in the world! After all, does Liu Bei’s Zhuge Liang still need to buy an official position? Shouldn't he be sitting quietly in Longzhong and waiting for heroes like Liu Bei to come and invite him?
