Jianyuan tenth year, the ninth day of April.
Under the witness of the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty, Liu Deng returned the jade seal symbolizing imperial power to Liu Che.
Then, he respectfully stepped back three steps, retreated to the imperial steps, saluted Liu Che again, then turned around and left the cage that had trapped him for ten years.
Facing the rising sun, Liu Deng finally walked out of the Xuanshi Hall.
"Farewell to His Majesty the King of the Town!"
Behind him, Liu Che and his ministers saluted respectfully towards Liu Deng's back.
The whole ceremony was very simple and fast, without so much red tape and not so many written records.
Liu Deng even declined all the emperor's rewards.
Countless historians in later generations have tried to find out the formal process of the transfer of imperial power in the pile of old papers.
However, no one expected that Liu Deng would directly reject those cumbersome etiquette from the beginning.
An old era ends and a new era begins.
Just as the ministers were congratulating the emperor on taking office, Liu Deng changed out of his heavy Yanfu, slowly dressed in linen clothes, and walked out of the dark Weiyang Palace.
"Your Majesty!"
Feng Changge, who was also dressed in linen, was sitting on the shaft of a shed carriage and said with a smile.
"With your achievements, being a prefect is more than enough. Why do you have to stay here to drive the carriage?"
Liu Deng stretched his body and said in a relaxed tone.
"I was originally a low-ranking official. Thanks to the support of the king, I became famous on the battlefield. Now I am a cripple. It's good to stay with you as a coachman. Why do I go to the court to mess around and make people annoying! "
Looking at his left hand that was missing half of his palm, Feng Changge said with a smile.
"You have no ambition! Don't come to my place to cry, you kid!"
After Liu Deng finished speaking, he got into the carriage with Feng Changge's help.
"Shall we go there?"
"It's all right. Let's leave Chang'an City first!"
Liu Deng laughed and said.
"Your Majesty, aren't you worried that His Majesty won't be able to control the situation?"
Feng Changge asked casually.
"What are you afraid of? I just went to have a good time, and I am not dead. Besides, who of those old bastards dare not give Chao Cuo face?"
Liu Deng muttered while chewing fried beans.
The carriage slowly drove out of Chang'an City, without any nostalgia.
Under the warm sunshine, Chang'an City behind him was still as before, bustling with traffic and bustling with people.
It was the third day of August in the tenth year of Jianyuan.
Cao Wei, the governor of Longxi, reported that the Qiang invaded again, killing thirteen Han people, destroying the royal palace, and desecrating the imperial power.
The emperor was angry and appointed Tiaohou Zhou Yafu as commander, Longxi guard general Cheng Bushi as chariot general, and led an army of 100,000 to attack the Western Qiang;
Of course, such a trivial matter as the sudden absence of thirteen death row inmates in Didao City's prison is not worthy of comment to outsiders.
In October of the same year, King Xiqiang led five hundred of his relatives to flee westward. The emperor was furious and anyone who dared to protect him would be guilty of the same crime.
Tiaohou accepted the order, commanded an army of 100,000, and marched out of Yangguan in the west, destroying twenty-five countries in the Western Regions. In September of the twelfth year of Jianyuan, he finally captured the King of Western Qiang and sent him back to Chang'an.
In October of the same year, the people of the Western Regions sent tens of thousands of blood letters, requesting that the Western Regions be merged into the territory of the Han Dynasty.
After careful consideration, the emperor could not bear the suffering of the people, so he set up the Protectorate of the Western Regions with Congling as the boundary, and appointed Zhou Yafu as the first governor of the Protectorate of the Western Regions.
In the first month of the following year, King Liang brought the five major princes and kings in the country to report that the world was at peace. Emperor Taizu Gao's responsibility of dividing the princes and guarding the four directions had come to naught. He was willing to exchange the existing territory for the support of the court and open up territory for the Han Dynasty to the west.
According to the emperor's permission, in May of the same year, the five princes and kings led 200,000 troops and left Yumen in the west.
Jianyuan year 15, September.
"Your Excellency, Prime Minister, is there no news from my cousin?"
Liu Che looked at the map in front of him with some boredom and asked casually.
"His Royal Highness the King of Zhen is said to have gone to sea with several princesses. A few days ago, a businessman reported that he and His Highness Prince Liang were traveling in Hua's City in Hua's City."
Chao Cuo said with a wry smile.
"Forget it, I'm afraid he doesn't want to be involved in this business anymore!"
Liu Che dropped the memorial in his hand with some depression.
"Your Majesty, what do you think about Prince Liang's request to relocate 50,000 Han households from the interior?"
Chao Cuo asked softly.
"Give it to them, give them 100,000 households, but they have to send their own people to recruit them. Let them be responsible for the transportation costs and the resettlement after recruitment!"
Liu Che thought for a while and then said casually.
"By the way, I remember, the college graduation exam will be held in a few days!"
Liu Che seemed to remember something, and then asked quickly.
"Yes, it should be the day after tomorrow!"
"These students, including their families, are not allowed to be relocated! This is a treasure. I don't even have enough for myself, so I can't give it to them now!"
Liu Che muttered.
"promise!"
"And this, what does the Prime Minister think of those students from the Western Regions who request to study in the academy?"
As the empire's territory continued to expand, it brought more and more problems.
Many of these problems gave Liu Che a headache, such as this one.
There is no doubt about the importance of the academy, but the stability of the Western Region is equally important.
Over the years, as the trade routes to the west were opened, the five princes and kings almost destroyed all the countries in succession with overwhelming advantages.
Moreover, under the policy of using a stick in one hand and a carrot in the other, they win over the people at the bottom and eliminate the original aristocratic class.
It quickly established a foothold, which gave those merchants in the Western Regions great room for development.
At the same time, as those academy students were constantly being dispatched into the Western Regions.
In the entire Western Region Protectorate, both the living environment and the business environment have improved a lot.
Coupled with the governance experience in Lingnan, the imperial court began to open elementary schools on a large scale in the Western Regions.
In the past few years, the vast majority of people in the Western Regions have begun to recognize their identity as Han Dynasty people.
After all, compared to the previous melee between the countries, there were still bandits everywhere.
Life now is simply paradise. They can do business and live with peace of mind.
As for the most difficult problem of bandits, it was greatly improved in just one year under Zhou Yafu's iron-fisted methods.
An invincible army of 100,000 people patrolled back and forth across the vast land. Whenever they found a bandit den, the soldiers rushed forward with red eyes and knives in hand.
When there is no war, exterminating bandits becomes their best way to make money.
The reward offered by Zhou Yafu was fifty ounces for a bandit's head. Not only were the officers and soldiers looking for it, but many bounty hunters also joined in the encirclement and suppression of the bandit.
With a fifty-gun head and killing a dozen or so, you can buy a house and land in the mainland of the Han Dynasty and live happily for the rest of your life.
In this environment, bandits are now a scarce resource.
Now that life is stable, if you want to live a good life, apart from doing business, the only thing left is studying.
After all, those officials who came from the academy advocated it, and those bumpkins from the Western Regions were naturally full of yearning for the academy.
Therefore, this issue was quickly brought to the emperor.
"Your Majesty, now that I am a great man, what are you afraid of?"
Chao Cuo said with a smile.
"Hahahaha, the Prime Minister is right! This makes me very angry!"
After Liu Che finished speaking, he picked up the imperial pen in his hand and wrote a bright red character on the memorial.
"allow!"
