The last department among the six departments is the Ministry of Rites.
It may seem like the Ministry of Etiquette is a useless department, but that's not the case.
The so-called national affairs lie in military service and sacrifice. The Ministry of Rites was the place where the "Tongyi of Jiade" was compiled. It was the place where Liu Bei gathered all the talents of the ancient literature school in the field of etiquette to formulate the next "Constitution" of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
What the Ministry of Rites controls is the fundamental law of the entire Han Empire, the rules of the game for the Han Empire, and the ideological foundation for the Han Empire to rule the entire world.
Because of the collapse of Jinwen School, "White Tiger Tongyi" has been de facto abolished and is no longer recognized as the "constitution" of the Han Empire.
Currently, the Eastern Han Empire needs a new guiding "constitution" to direct everyone's daily production and life actions to replace the rules when the Jinwen school dominated the world.
Everyone needs to know how to do things, make friends, and live in daily life, and what to do in the right way, so that they can be regarded as respecting Heaven and Dharma Patriarch.
The main reason is that everyone usually does too many things that are embarrassing, so they need some psychological comfort.
And this is where Liu Bei wanted to implement his corrections to the Han Empire, replacing the superstitious attitude of prophecy with a secular attitude, and gradually realizing the transition from a theocratic government to a secular government.
Therefore, the existence of "Chiade Tongyi" is very necessary. Everything Liu Bei will do in the future will need "Chiade Tongyi" to explain and endorse him, provide him with reasonable legitimacy, and avoid doubts and resistance from the people of the world. .
When the people of the world questioned and resisted, Liu Bei could openly declare that they were rebels and thieves through the relevant content in "Chiade Tongyi", and he himself could lead the king's army to defeat the thieves.
It belongs to the strong claim of righteousness.
Including everything Liu Bei is doing at this stage, "Chiade Tongyi" is needed to provide legitimacy to ensure that everything he is doing now and the status quo of holding imperial power on behalf of others will not be regarded as "transgression" by others.
At the current stage, Liu Bei has built six departments in the General's Mansion to connect the major departments of the imperial court to handle affairs. He has transplanted the entire power of the Luoyang Court to the General's Mansion, using the General's Mansion as the central organization, and even replaced the Shangshu in a sense. status of the station.
However, although the Shangshutai had great power in the Eastern Han Dynasty, its rank was very low, so it was not unfeasible to actually replace the Shangshutai with the General's Office.
In terms of rank, once the general's mansion is established, its status will be very high. If there is another awesome general, the status will be even higher.
It was enough to become the center of power of the entire Han Empire as it is now, essentially holding the power to rule the world.
Despite this, Liu Bei was fully aware of the instability and unsustainability of this stage.
The general government system with Liu Bei as the core is not stable, which also means that this secular government is not stable.
This secular government is based on the thoughts of the ancient Confucian school of literature, and its actual composition is a powerful military group with Liu Bei as the core.
The background of the Luoyang court was a military power group, and its existence was a military power group that highly relied on Liu Bei's personal prestige and ability.
The advantage of a military power group is that it has strong rule and can subdue any disobedient forces. If there is resistance, it can be wiped out. Therefore, in a certain sense, this kind of government is the most suitable if it can promote social progress.
It has the highest efficiency, the strongest execution ability, the most thorough attack and liquidation of opposition forces, and is powerful in killing people at every turn.
But the problem is also military power.
This thing is highly dependent on the existence and actions of a military strongman who is like a man from heaven.
When the military strongman is alive, or when the battle is undefeated, the government's deterrence is extremely strong, and it can do whatever it says and do whatever it says.
But once the military strongman is defeated, or the strongman dies and there is no successor, then the government will collapse at the speed of light. It is difficult to have a stable inheritance model and it cannot last long.
Liu Bei had nothing to do about this, and it was the same at all times and in all countries.
If we want to find a stable inheritance model, in this era, the people like Emperor Zhang of Han are playing the most effective and long-term way of maintaining peaceful rule. The model is much more stable than Liu Bei's military strongman model.
After Emperor He of the Han Dynasty, many generations of baby emperors and young emperors emerged in the Eastern Han Dynasty, which shattered the majesty of the imperial power. Even so, the Eastern Han Dynasty survived for more than a hundred years before it completely collapsed.
This is the stability of the theological nature.
So sometimes in his spare time, Liu Bei would lament that he had the idea and action preparation to eliminate the shortcomings of the world, but it was difficult to ensure that this model could continue unless he upheld the mentality of "I will control the flood after I die" , that really can be ignored.
If we want to be stable, there is really no other possibility except to engage in mystery or pray that future generations will be wise and capable.
As for taking a step forward to elections, it is better to pray that future generations will be wise and capable, that is more reliable.
Liu Bei also thought that if he really became the emperor, then he would remove all obstacles, vigorously develop technology and expand outward, find more overseas territories, and expand people's desires to the whole world...
Maybe it’s also a path.
This is a path that ancient China has never taken, and no one knows what the outcome will be.
But if you continue to stay on this acre of three-point land and get involuted, it will definitely not end well.
So if there is no other good way out in the end, Liu Bei may have no choice but to take such an unimagined path.
Looking at the efficient and somewhat fanatical Luoyang court led by him, Liu Bei was filled with emotion - this situation would not last long, because after the slave restriction movement, Liu Bei would start preparing to conquer the land.
The slave restriction movement did not harm the interests of the vast majority of the ruling class. Instead, it targeted small and medium-sized landowners and ordinary wealthy households. It was tantamount to inheriting the legacy of the Han Dynasty. It cut the leeks of the middle and upper classes of the Han Dynasty and wiped out these people. It was so miserable that a big piece of fat was cut off from their bodies and everyone shared it.
Some of this fat was indeed given to the common people below, and it was given quite a lot. The divided land, exemption from taxes for three to five years, and a series of relocation expenses all cost a lot of money. expenses.
This huge expenditure has alleviated the sharp social conflicts in the Han Dynasty to a certain extent, reduced the pressure on the people, and allowed more people to have food. It can be regarded as an effective political reform.
However, the fundamental problem of the decline of the Han Empire has not been resolved.
Because the leeks of the richest group of people are not so easy to harvest. If you can still get a certain response by using the ruling class to harvest the leeks of small and medium-sized landowners, and then carry out land transfer across the country, it will be a pure quarrel with the ruling class. So happy.
Even the group of people who are most deeply bound to Liu Bei's interests will probably be unhappy and may not support Liu Bei so smoothly.
And the crux of the problem is that once the land is conquered, there must be a killing spree, killing a large number of the original ruling class and replacing them with a new group of people, which is almost equivalent to a revolution.
In this way, the foundation of the entire Han Empire will be replaced. The existence that originally supported this ancient empire will completely change its appearance, and the new group of people will especially need someone who can ensure that their interests are consolidated.
Liu Xiu did not have the confidence to complete the matter of transferring land, and had no way to implement it to the end. Therefore, the underlying operating logic of the Eastern Han Empire remained unchanged. However, if Liu Bei succeeded in promoting it, the operating logic of the Eastern Han Empire would change.
What is certain is that there will definitely be a large-scale decisive battle within the Luoyang court.
Liu Bei squinted his eyes and looked out the window. Through the layers of fog, he seemed to be able to see the future more than ten years or even decades later.
The slave restriction campaign against the four prefectures of Liangzhou, Youzhou, Jizhou and Yizhou was the main theme of the three years of Jian'an.
After March of the third year of Jian'an, the slave restriction operation became the main task of the entire central system of the Han Empire. Through this series of tasks, Liu Bei also successfully used the General's Mansion to control the power of the entire Luoyang court.
By the end of the third year of Jian'an, everyone had concluded that at this stage, the so-called four-minister system had actually become Liu Bei's one-man show. Dong Chong was autistic, Jian Shuo gave in, Zhang Rang was obedient, and Liu Bei was the only one. Give orders.
His orders were the emperor's orders, and his will was the emperor's will. He actually held the imperial power on his behalf and became the controller of the imperial power, guiding the progress of the Luoyang court alone.
And through the slave restriction campaign in the second year of Jian'an and the third year of Jian'an, Liu Bei successfully proved his ability to govern and the strength of his governance methods. Under his control, two-thirds of the Han Empire had completed the slave restriction. action.
Although the slave restriction operation had many imperfections, its success was recognized by the world.
Liu Bei mobilized a large number of manpower, material resources and troops, and used both soft and hard methods to successfully deal with the people who made the governors and county guards all over the world feel troublesome. They did not dare to confront the Luoyang court.
The fierce resistance in Yizhou basically came to an end by the end of the third year of Jian'an. Many family forces that dared to resist were physically wiped out and eliminated. The remaining families were basically willing to cooperate, and the families that were unwilling to cooperate were completely destroyed.
This operation initiated by Liu Bei, starting in the second year of Jian'an, successfully liberated 1.91 million people in two-thirds of the Han Empire and returned them to official household registration, adding a large number of people to Liangzhou, Bingzhou and Youzhou. The registered population makes the development prospects of these areas no longer gloomy.
This political achievement is bloody, but the results are obvious and cannot be ignored. Even the rulers have to applaud this political achievement, and they are also worried that Liu Bei has such a strong execution ability. One day, if he plots against himself, Come on, can you carry it on your own?
(End of chapter)
