You really can't blame Cao Pi for having such a big reaction. It's really Liu Bei who found these people. They basically cover the people with the most decision-making power in several states in Jihan today.
Hanzhong was the logistics base for Liu Bei's first two Northern Expeditions. Needless to say, Chengdu was the capital of Ji Han. As for Jingzhou, the first two Northern Expeditions had almost reached the Central Plains.
Liu Bei suddenly sent the chief officials of these places to Chang'an to discuss something. Is there going to be another fight in a short time? !
Cao Pi really didn't know where Liu Bei got the confidence to launch another war after a year, but the results of the Shu thieves' two northern expeditions made Cao Pi really not dare to take it lightly.
Furthermore, the current situation in Dawei is not easy to be optimistic.
It has only been less than six years since Cao Pi succeeded to the throne of Wei. He has already fought two wars, and each time they fought on two fronts. Even with the foundation of the Wei Dynasty, it was still a bit overwhelming.
Liu Bei is going crazy when he gets old, and Cao Pi doesn't want to accompany Liu Bei to go crazy.
Therefore, Cao Pi ordered Sima Yi of Wancheng, Wang Ling of Xuchang, Guo Huai of Wuguan, and Wang Chang of Tongguan to strengthen their alerts in four directions and prepare to hold on. At the same time, Cao Pi sent Cao Zhen to lead 20,000 troops to garrison Hangu Pass, and Xiahou Shang led an army of 10,000 troops. Wan, ready to support Xuchang or Wancheng at any time.
It's impossible to fight Liu Bei. If Liu Bei is going crazy, I won't do it. It's better to close the pass tightly and hold on.
As for Liu Bei, Liu Bei is really not crazy.
Ji Han's foundation was not as strong as that of Cao Wei. He had just recuperated for a year and launched a war. How could he withstand such a torment?
Liu Bei came to these people mainly because he wanted to do something ahead.
The first thing is about Zuo Fengyi's relocation of people to farmland. This matter has been agreed upon a long time ago and will be put on hold for the time being until the ancestor worship is over. Now it's time.
The second thing is to restore the prime minister.
In fact, the most important thing is the latter thing, because it involves the adjustment of the entire administrative system of Han Dynasty.
Officials from the three provinces and six ministries each perform their duties and have their own powers. If you suddenly put a mother-in-law on top of these people, without enough big boss support and endorsement, it will be difficult to implement this kind of thing no matter how you think about it.
Officials from the three provinces, including Zhuge Liang under Zhongshu order, Fa Zheng under Shangshu order, and Pang Tong at the Zhongshu order, will definitely be called to discuss the matter together.
Among the six ministers, except for Jian Yong, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, Zhang Xi, the minister of the Ministry of War, and Qin Mi, the minister of the Ministry of Rites, are in Chang'an. Dong He, the minister of the Ministry of Punishments, and Chen Zhen, the minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, who is acting as the minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, will stay in Chengdu and cannot come for the time being. Liu Ba, the Minister of Household Affairs, was in Hanzhong. In addition to Dong He and Chen Zhen, who wanted to stay behind, Liu Bei called everyone else who could go to Hanzhong.
As for Xu Shu and Wang Ji, they represented the will of the officials in Jingzhou and the general Guan Yu. Zhang Fei himself was also present. He and Zhao Yun, who was still in Chang'an, represented the will of the military.
So many people deliberated together, and no one could overturn the final decision.
It's not difficult for Zuo Fengyi to farm.
After more than two months of continuous thinking and weighing the pros and cons, and with Zhuge Liang's help in analysis, Liu Bei had basically made a decision.
Part of the suggestions from Zhang Xi, Pang Tong, and Huang Quan were adopted to form a new plan.
The Guanzhong Land is very important from any military, political, and economic perspective. Therefore, the defense of the Guanzhong Land must be a top priority.
Zhang Xi suggested that Fengyi move to the civilian army camp in Zuo. This plan is a good solution and must be implemented as a basic framework.
As for the military garrison, although Zhuge Liang agreed with Zhang Xi's idea of deploying county soldiers to guard the border, he definitely couldn't do what Zhang Xi thought, as that would consume too many soldiers.
If you just recruit county soldiers to guard the border in Yongzhou, this is not a big deal, but Jingzhou and Yizhou are too far away from Yongzhou. If you let the county soldiers from these places come to Yongzhou to guard the border, will they be able to adapt to the climate, water and soil of Yongzhou first? Not to mention, it would take several months to walk on this road, and it would take half a year to go back and forth. What is the point of guarding the border like this? !
Besides, no state or county mobilizes more than 60,000 soldiers to guard the border every year. Since the Han Dynasty, unless there is a major war on the border, there has never been such a large-scale border guarding operation.
Therefore, Zhuge Liang suggested that even if the border guarding system was to be restored, the number of troops should be controlled at around 10,000 people, with each state taking turns to undertake the task. However, the border guarding approach was correct. Yongzhou could not lack people for anything.
Based on this concept, Zhuge Liang suggested that Liu Bei adopt Huang Quan's suggestion and appropriately open up the passage for some aristocratic families in central Shu and even Jingzhou aristocratic families to go north to Yongzhou.
Because except for these big families, it is not that easy for you to mobilize Dingkou from anywhere else to go north to Yongzhou.
People love their families and are generally reluctant to move. Only those hidden Dingkou who have been abandoned by aristocratic families but do not have their own land may be willing to go north to Yongzhou to fight for a way out.
As for the issue of Zuo Fengyi's defense, Pang Tong's suggestion of focusing on defense is correct. At least until Zuo Fengyi's Dingkou is completely restored, or before the military camp takes shape, it is impossible to fully protect Zuo Fengyi's defense. It can only focus on the key points. Deploy defenses and defend several important cities.
After Zhuge Liang's unraveling, Liu Bei finally clarified his thinking and made a decision based on Zhuge Liang's suggestion.
The first step is to take advantage of the fact that the Northern Expeditionary Army is still in Chang'an and the military force is guaranteed, and move the tens of thousands of people from Zuo Fengyi to You Fufeng to enrich the population of You Fufeng.
The second step is to recruit and train soldiers from Yongzhou County starting next year to form a reserve force. Together with the 10,000 soldiers from other states and counties recruited to guard the border next year, we will adopt a focused defense approach to defend Zuo Fengyi.
In this way, even if Liu Bei leads the Northern Army to withdraw to Chengdu next year, and Zhao Yun leads the Yongzhou Corps to withdraw to Liangzhou, the problem will not be too big.
The third step is to take advantage of the family's desire for Yongzhou land, open up Yongzhou land transactions, allow foreign families to enter Yongzhou, and exchange Dingkou and money and grain for the qualifications to acquire Yongzhou land. This will not only subsidize part of the central finance, but also the Yongzhou Governor's Department. By selling land in exchange for part of the local finance, the tax losses in the past two years can be subsidized.
After Zhuge Liang's repeated planning, a detailed plan has been formed. Under this plan, Pang Tong and Huang Quan naturally had no objections, and even Zhang Xi, the newly appointed governor of Yongzhou, had no objections.
Because according to Zhuge Liang's plan, Zuo Fengyi's cultivated land will be abandoned for a year at most. Quan should use rotation farming, which will not only prevent the land from being abandoned, but will help increase the fertility of the land.
The matter of Zuo Fengyi's military camp was settled through discussion.
But Zhuge Liang shut up about the reinstatement of the prime minister.
Yes, Zhuge Liang did not express any position on this, neither agreed nor disagreed.
Because anyone with a discerning eye can see that if Liu Bei really reinstates the position of prime minister, the position of prime minister must be given to Zhuge Liang.
Zhuge Liang certainly knew that, so he was neither in favor, against, nor even in agreement on this matter.
Since everything he said was wrong, Zhuge Liang simply said nothing and just followed His Majesty's arrangements.
But Zhuge Liang doesn't have to say anything. Other heads of departments, including Xu Shu and Wang Ji who came from Jingzhou, Liu Ba and Fazheng who came from Hanzhong, and even Zhang Xi and Zhang Fei, all have something to say.
It's not that everyone is opposed to reinstating the prime minister, but the consequences of some things must be carefully considered.
For example, Xu Shu and Wang Ji stood in the position of the Jingzhou legions and officials and considered the impact on Jingzhou after reinstating the prime minister.
There is no way. Jingzhou's situation is special. It is too far away from Yizhou and Yongzhou, and transportation is quite inconvenient. Therefore, Guan Yu has always been in charge of it as a general and the governor.
Once the prime minister is established and takes charge of three provinces and six ministries, will Jingzhou also be included in the jurisdiction?
If so, the Jingzhou aristocratic family and Jingzhou officials would suffer some infringement of their interests. Although Wang Ji and Xu Shu are not from Jingzhou, they must consider the impact when they are officials in Jingzhou now.
Whether Jingzhou can maintain the same special status as before is a very important matter to the Jingzhou aristocratic families.
Therefore, Xu Shu and Wang Ji hoped that after Liu Bei considered reinstating the prime minister, he would consider the rights of the prime minister and the special status of Jingzhou, and have a relatively harmonious strategy to deal with this matter.
But Fazheng and Liu Ba have ideas, which are relatively complicated.
On the one hand, Fazheng and Liu Ba considered the issue from the perspective of their own responsibilities.
Fa Zheng Shangshu Ling is responsible for the execution of national government affairs. Once the prime minister comes to take charge of regent affairs, the rights and responsibilities of Fa Zheng Shangshu Ling are invisibly diluted.
Liu Ba is in charge of the Ministry of Revenue and is currently the only person with the power to formulate national economic policies. If suddenly there is a prime minister to check and balance him, many things may not be so easy to unfold.
Of course, the most important reason is that there are some serious differences in the economic concepts of Liu Ba and Zhuge Liang.
In these days, of course, a free economy cannot be achieved, because the two men are consistent in their overall stance on the economy, and they both pursue the state's intervention in controlling the economy.
However, Liu Ba believes that the market still needs to be given a certain degree of autonomy. In some matters, the state can only take advantage of the situation, and it is not appropriate to use too many decrees to interfere with the market.
However, Zhuge Liang believed that the state should take full control of the economy and strictly supervise economic activities. Otherwise, in the fragile small-scale peasant economy of this era, the common people would never be able to defeat the aristocratic families who control a large amount of resources.
The two have always had disputes about this.
On the other hand, Fazheng and Liu Ba also have to think from the standpoint of the Dongzhou faction.
The original three provinces included one person from the Jingzhou faction, one from the Dongzhou faction, and one from the Imperial faction. Except for the unfortunate fact that the Yizhou faction did not have the right to speak among senior officials, the internal power structure was relatively balanced.
But once Zhuge Liang of the imperial faction becomes the prime minister in charge of three provinces and six ministries, who will take over as Zhongshuling will affect the structure of the court and thus the distribution of their respective interests.
Therefore, Fazheng and Liu Ba expressed their opposition to the restoration of the prime minister very directly.
Staying the same is better than getting better.
And Zhang Xi. Zhang Xi is not opposed to Zhuge Liang becoming prime minister. What he objects to is the sequelae after Liu Bei was reinstated as prime minister.
A country's administrative system is best set up at the beginning. Adjustments can be made, but major framework changes should be avoided as much as possible.
The reason why Zhang Xi originally proposed the "three provinces and six ministries system" was on the one hand to decentralize power and avoid the situation of powerful officials in the late Han Dynasty, and on the other hand to increase the fault tolerance rate.
It is better for the state to formulate policies and consult with multiple ministries than for the prime minister to speak out. This can reduce the suffering of the people due to the selfish desires of those in power.
But now that Liu Bei has restored the position of prime minister, Zhang Xi is worried that this position will become a part of the future government system just like Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty established a general. This is not what Zhang Xi hopes to happen.
Zhang Xi believes that if Zhuge Liang becomes prime minister, the people will definitely live a better life. His abilities and moral character are worthy of trust. But once the prime minister's control over the three provinces becomes a system, will the subsequent successors be able to do what Zhuge Liang did? , it’s really hard to say whether there will be powerful ministers and sycophants.
What Zhang Xi objects to is Liu Bei's practice of setting up things based on people and then destroying things based on people.
If anything, Zhang Xi belongs to the establishment faction. He hopes to use the system to constrain the behavior of officials, rather than create the system because of officials.
Dissent in government affairs is probably divided into the above three factions, each arguing endlessly.
As for the military, Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun also had something to say.
Between the two Han Dynasties, the rights of the prime minister were different, especially after Emperor Xiaowu established generals to manage military affairs, the prime minister was no longer qualified to intervene in military power. Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun wanted to ask clearly, this reinstated prime minister , are you qualified to intervene in military affairs?
Don't tell me this question, it's really about Liu Bei.
According to Liu Bei's idea, even if the Prime Minister is reinstated, he will not be allowed to interfere in military affairs anymore. He is not dead yet.
But if one day you pass away and Adou succeeds to the throne, can you rest assured that you let Adou take charge of military affairs? !
Yes, we can ask Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun and others to help look after them. But Third Brother and Zilong are quite old. How many years can they look after? !
Nowadays, the world is still not at peace. The world is divided into three parts. No one can eliminate the other two forces in a short time. If the prime minister cannot intervene in military affairs, once there is an external war, the inner and outer dynasties cannot form a joint force, and the military and political affairs cannot work together. This will If something goes wrong, it will be fatal.
Therefore, Liu Bei believed that after he left, the prime minister would definitely open up a government to manage affairs, and the Yitong and the Third Division would definitely have to intervene in military affairs.
But now Zhang Fei's problem has thrown back the military power thing to him. Can he really give it away casually? !
Military power is easy to release, but it will not be that simple to take it back in the future.
There is no need to doubt the relationship between Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang. They are indeed compatible with each other. Liu Bei believes in Zhuge Liang's character and moral character, and also believes that Zhuge Liang will fully assist Adou after a hundred years. But can you guarantee that the successor chosen by Zhuge Liang is also such a person? !
By that time, the older generation of Wencheng generals who followed Liu Bei should be almost dead. Even the slightly younger Zhang Xi, Guan Ping, Kou Feng and others should also be old. In case Adou believes in the wrong person. , if someone with ulterior motives takes over the military power, wouldn't it be a big deal? !
Cao Cao's lesson is not far away.
Once that time comes, even if Liu Bei keeps Zhang Xi as a back-up, it will still be difficult to help Adou solve his problems once Zhang Xi does not have military power in his hands.
So, should we give military power? !
In other words, can we find a way to compromise - military power can be given, but only to Zhuge Liang? !
But...there has to be a reason and an explanation for this, right? !
(End of chapter)
