In May of the sixth year of Jianxing, Zhang Xi arrived at Xiangyang, the seat of Jingzhou, and met a group of Jingzhou officials who stayed here.
In fact, they are not strangers. For example, Wang Ji, Wenpin, Ma Liang, Xizhen, Pan Jun and others are all acquaintances who have known Zhang Xi since he was in charge of Jiangling.
These people actually welcomed Zhang Xi's appointment as the governor of Jingzhou, but due to their own personal interests, they also hoped to learn from Zhang Xi's mouth some recent changes in the court's trends.
One of the most important things is the court's specific measures to deal with Jingzhou.
Xu Shu was very tight-lipped. After returning from Chang'an, he didn't mention a word about the imperial court's arrangements for Jingzhou. But after all, the aristocratic family these days was not free. Xu Shu didn't tell them, so they naturally had channels to find out.
As for those who don’t have channels, they can only blame themselves for not having the ability.
Therefore, at this time, the aristocratic families with a little bit of energy in Jingzhou already knew that the imperial court would unified jurisdiction over Jingzhou, but they did not know the specific regulations.
There are rumors about everything, but whoever lives by believing them is a fool.
Therefore, Zhang Xi's arrival was the first opportunity to test the court's tone.
These aristocratic families must know the actual operations and bottom line of the court before they can decide whether to cooperate with the court's actions. No one will risk their family's wealth and life to try the Jingzhou County soldiers when the situation is unknown. Whether it can be fought or not.
Today is no longer the time of the early chaos in the late Han Dynasty. At that time, the imperial court did not care about the localities, and the local families could dominate. But now, the power of the three parties has been established, and local rights are basically under control. I feel dissatisfied if I want to be the same as before. Just inciting refugees to kill officials is too risky and the price of failure is too high.
Today's aristocratic families generally rarely resort to rebellion if they can achieve their goals through interest exchange.
After all, everyone has only one head, and it won’t grow back if it falls off.
For this reason, as soon as Zhang Xi arrived in Xiangyang, invitations to various banquets continued, and they were basically officials from local aristocratic families in Jingzhou who came to inquire about the news.
Zhang Xi didn't hide it either. Zhang Xi and Zhuge Liang were well aware of the concerns of the Jingzhou aristocratic families. Coupled with Pang Tong's argument, they finally reached a relatively compromise plan.
Zhang Xi took advantage of the opportunity given by Jingzhou officials to hold a reception banquet and threw out this plan.
Jingzhou must be handed over to the unified management of the imperial court. Zhang Xi will only go out to Jingzhou as a local guard general this time. Although he has the right to take holidays, this right is limited to military affairs. For government affairs, Zhang Xi can only work under the Han system. The rights of Jingzhou pastoralists.
In other words, compared to Guan Yu, Zhang Xi lacked the military and political power of a governor, and naturally did not have the power to appoint and remove personnel.
The most worrying issue for the Jingzhou aristocratic families is that people from other states, especially Yizhou, may come to Jingzhou to take office. This is something that has been determined by the imperial court and cannot be changed.
According to the practice of the Han Dynasty, it is normal to serve as an official in a different place. If it were not for the war, it would be abnormal for Jingzhou people to serve as officials in Jingzhou.
Now it is just a return to the Han orthodoxy.
However, Zhuge Liang is not a fool. He knows that the world is uncertain now, and many things must be based on stability. Zhuge Liang is also very aware of the influence of aristocratic families. Zhuge Liang is not that stupid to rashly touch the interests of these aristocratic families.
While the imperial court took back the power of personnel appointment and removal and taxation, Zhuge Liang also gave his own supplementary conditions.
The first is to exempt Nanyang County from taxes for three years on the grounds of Nanyang's new rule.
In fact, although Nanyang has been a back-and-forth battle for several years, it was only a battle near Wancheng, the real essence of Nanyang. Of course there were losses, but they were really not big.
By doing this, Zhuge Liang tacitly approved the Xiangyang family to develop northward and enrich the Dingkou land in Nanyang.
As for whether the Nanyang family would have any objections, Zhuge Liang didn't care.
First, the influential big families in Nanyang were either completely gone when Cao Ren Tu Wan was killed, or they moved to Luoyang or even Yanzhou. The remaining big families are really not that good compared to the Xiangyang family. On a scale.
Second, Zhuge Liang hoped that the Nanyang family would unite to cause some conflict with the Xiangyang family. This would give the court room to adjust and prevent all the big families from colluding.
So, Zhuge Liang did this on purpose.
And Pang Tong really didn't object much to this.
Pang Tong was from Xiangyang, and his first consideration must be the interests of the Xiangyang family, followed by the Nanjun family. As for the Nanyang family, they had been separated as early as Liu Biao's period. After the incident of Cao Ren's Tuwan incident, they became inseparable from each other. What friendship is left.
Pang Tong could argue for the Xiangyang family, but Pang Tong of the Nanyang family said he was really not that familiar.
This is Zhuge Liang's first compensation condition.
The second compensation condition cannot be stated on the table. It can only be communicated privately to Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong.
That is - the imperial court will not directly appoint officials below the county level.
This era is an era of dual monarchy, and when the court loses control of the local area, the shortcomings of the dual monarchy can easily be revealed - my master's master is not my master.
That's why Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty spent his entire life strengthening centralization of power.
But the problem is that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ended up with a reputation for being militaristic. Although it was because he was so happy with his achievements, the aristocratic family also held him back.
In the Eastern Han Dynasty, as the power of the aristocratic families grew stronger, even the founding Emperor Guangwu was unable to directly control the local area. Although the matter of Dong Xuan, the strong leader, became a good story in the end, Dong Xuan was always there whenever he appeared. During the period of Emperor Xiaowu, it was estimated that everyone had already died.
Therefore, the imperial court still uses the appointment of state officials to indirectly control the local situation. Now Zhuge Liang continues to use this routine.
This routine is not a new one, and it is not enough for the Jingzhou families to feel that they have benefited. But the Han Dynasty used to use the routine of becoming an official in a different place, but now, this rule is not strictly enforced.
Zhuge Liang privately promised that the imperial court would not directly send officials below the county magistrate level to take up posts in Jingzhou. In other words, the magistrates and county lieutenants of the counties in Jingzhou, as well as the chroniclers and meritorious officials of the state capital, were all from Jingzhou. You have the final say.
As long as the imperial court does not formally restore the rule of serving as an official in a different place for one day, those outsiders will have absolutely no chance to get their hands into Jingzhou.
As for the existing county-level officials, strictly speaking, except for brothers Pan Jun, Ma Liang, Wenpin, Xi Hong, and Xi Zhen, all the other high-ranking officials in Jingzhou are not from Jingzhou.
Zhang Xi, the shepherd of Jingzhou, and Xu Shu, the official of Jingzhou Biejia, were all from Yingchuan, Wang Ji, the governor of Jingzhou, was from Donglai, and Shi Bao, the prefect of Nanjun, was from Bohai. In fact, Jingzhou was also well implementing the tradition of serving as an official in another place.
As for where the following state and county officials are from, does that matter? !
Well, well, it doesn't really matter, right.
If considered from this perspective, the Jingzhou aristocratic families were surprised and felt that this matter was not unacceptable. They still retained some control rights over the local area. Although this right was reduced and restricted, it was better than not having it at all.
You can't just incite the states and counties to rebel because of such a reduction in rights.
The risk of doing this kind of thing now is much greater than it was a few decades ago. Today's Han Dynasty court is not the chaotic and disorderly Han Dynasty court back then. Today's Jingzhou Mu is no longer the weak Liu Jingsheng who took office on the spur of the moment.
In addition, over the years, Guan Yu has turned a blind eye to Jingzhou's political affairs, but he has always had a firm grip on military affairs. Within the Jingzhou Army, those who are from Jingzhou and serve as commanders of the first army are those who are from Jingzhou. Not even a single hand is available, and half of them are their confidants.
Yes, I'm talking about the two young men Liao Hua and Deng Ai.
As for Wen Pinya, the only leading general of the Jingzhou faction, he was from Nanyang. His relationship with the Xiangyang family in his early years was not very good, otherwise he would not have been reused by Liu Biao.
The Jingzhou family really wanted to rebel, and with Wenpin's stubbornness, it would be a good thing if he didn't let go and help suppress it. The Jingzhou family would use its head to challenge Jingzhou's 90,000-strong army.
So, that would be great.
Later, what surprised the Jingzhou family even more - Zhang Xi announced that in view of the vague administrative concept of Nanjun in recent years, it was difficult to divide and govern, so he planned to split Nanjun into Xiangyang County and Jiangling County. an administrative territory.
By the way, Zhang Xi’s state pastoral office is not planned to be located in Xiangyang County, but in Jiangling County.
There is such a good thing. The Jingzhou aristocratic families are even more happy! ! !
(End of chapter)
