Zhongping, the fourth reign title of Ling Emperor Liu Hong, was used by the Han Dynasty for a total of six years.
In fact, it has no special meaning, or in other words, no particularly auspicious meaning.
Zhong: in the middle, Ping: ordinary.
Zhongping: neither good nor bad, neither good nor bad.
For Liu Hong, this is probably his highest expectation for this country.
Unfortunately, in the first year of the change of reign, the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out. Zhang Jiao, a leader of Taiping Road who was well-known among the poor peasants, decided to overthrow the Han Dynasty and establish a new world ruled by the Yellow Turban Army.
For a time, the world was in chaos. Even a three-year-old child knew the slogan "Heaven is dead, Huang Tian shall stand", let alone others.
Thirty-six armies from the eight states of Qing, Xu, You, Ji, Jing, Yang, Yan, and Henan attacked the capital Luoyang with overwhelming force. Prefectures and counties along the way fell one after another and officials fled.
However, a skinny camel is bigger than a horse.
The imperial court breathed its last breath and suppressed the Yellow Turban Uprising.
And this year, the fifth year of Zhongping, the last straw that broke the Han Dynasty appeared——
It was not the resurgence of the Yellow Turban bandits, nor the aliens who took advantage of the chaos to plunder the border, but a few days later, Liu Hong responded to the suggestion of his clan member Liu Yanzhi and issued an edict to reset the state pastor.
The original intention of doing this was to calm the people, effectively quell the rebellion, and delay the spread of the Yellow Turban Rebellion to other regions, and it ultimately achieved the goal expected by the emperor.
But in the process, a large number of local forces with heavy troops were created. The governors and prefects became ambitious and began to use the forces used to suppress the Yellow Turban Rebellion to separate themselves.
After all, once you have real power, you can manage the military and manage politics. In addition, the state pastoral rank is high and the emperor is far away. No one can check and balance it——
Although the governor exercised the power of state shepherd, his rank was only six hundred stones, and the officials under his position were more noble than the county governor.
"Control the heavy with the light, control the high with the humble. This is the art of balance, but the emperor is ignorant."
Since he had been chatting with Zhao Yun for a long time, and the conversation was about national affairs, Lu Li was not very sleepy now, so he simply lay on the wooden board and thought wildly.
Anyway, the Han Dynasty was exhausted, and he had no intention, let alone the ability to continue the country.
State animal husbandry?
If nothing else happens, the lord will be named the governor next, and whether he can serve as the state shepherd will be questionable.
Frankly speaking, Lu Li didn't think there was any possibility. Although Emperor Ling was stupid, the ministers around him were not idlers. These people would definitely analyze the pros and cons for the emperor, and Liu Hong probably heard some of it, so he was about to appoint Among the three state shepherds, two were from the clan. Although Huang Wan was not from the clan, he was a son of the public clan and was loyal to the Han Dynasty.
It's a pity that Emperor Ling overestimated himself and underestimated the current situation. Once this was opened, the spread of Zhou Mu became unstoppable.
…
"General Lu, my lord has summoned all the generals in the army to go to the camp to discuss matters." Early the next morning, Lu Li, who was sleeping in his armor, was woken up by a bodyguard.
"Partial camp?"
Lu Li cheered up, looked for his boots, and asked, "Are all the leaders of Xiutu's tribe here?"
"I don't know, but two foreigners did come, and their attitude was very humble."
"Let's go."
Just as Lu Li opened the curtain, King Xiutu and a tribe leader were sitting on the bench, silently listening to the reprimand from Ding Yuan.
King Xiutu is in his fifties this year. When he came, he specially put on a white satin robe with a wolf tooth necklace hanging crosswise around his neck. This is a costume only worn on extremely formal occasions to show his inner respect. And apologies.
Of course, the most important thing is to beg for forgiveness.
The heads of King Zuo Xian and King Gu Li were put in boxes and displayed in front of the desks of the heads of the ministries. How powerful this was.
Therefore, he rushed to the Han army camp at starry night to plead guilty, but he was still led to a side tent. There were no beautiful maids here. Only a tall and thick sergeant came and brought two cups of tea. The smell was not bad, but the tea was The powder was sifted too coarsely, and the onion, ginger, and orange peel were not mashed. When the boiling water was poured in, the foam would rise in all directions. One look at it and you would know that it is not a tea connoisseur.
Then, five big and three thick generals arrived one after another. Some of them didn't say anything, just looked coldly at him, while others pointed at him and cursed him. If there weren't someone watching, King Xiutu felt like he would be split in two. part.
Not long after, an old man pushed open the door and entered.
King Xiutu was well versed in Han culture. As soon as he saw the official uniform, he knew that this person had a very high status. He hurried forward to salute him with a very low posture.
It's a pity that Ding Yuan didn't give any face, and directly cursed. If he hadn't been cautious, he would have taken action long ago.
"..."
As soon as Lu Li entered the camp, he saw his lord pointing at an old foreign man with spittle flying all over the sky.
"The general taught you the right lesson."
"We know we were wrong."
At this time, King Xiutu, who had been silent for a long time, took a deep breath and plucked up the courage to defend himself in blunt Chinese: "This kowtow was not Xiao Wang's intention, but was forced by King Zuo Xian many times..."
As if to increase his persuasiveness, he added: "These days, when facing the Yanmen Pass defenders, we have always used camps built in advance to confront them, and never took the initiative to attack. If it hadn't been for King Zuo Xian's repeated urging , we have already retreated."
He came here to plead guilty. As soon as he said this, King Xiutu became even more humble. However, Ding Yuan did not gain the power and be unforgiving. Instead, he smiled slightly and said: "I have always known that Xiutu's ministries are polite and sincere. If How could you collude with an adulterer if you weren't forced?"
Hearing this, King Xiutu breathed a sigh of relief and didn't bother to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead. He quickly squeezed out a smile and nodded in agreement.
Lu Li, who had been standing there watching the show for a while, walked in silently and found a random place to stand.
From his point of view, it no longer matters what the facts are, as long as Xiitu Gehu withdraws his troops immediately and allows the 20,000 county soldiers to go south as soon as possible.
However, King Xiutu's performance made Ding Yuan feel that the heat was not enough and he had to beat it some more, so he raised his eyes and gave Zhang Liao a look.
Zhang Liao understood instantly and said loudly:
"It is better to hang your head in the barbarian mansion on the street to show that you are thousands of miles away. Anyone who openly offends a strong man will be punished no matter how far away he is!"
This sentence comes from the letter written by the famous Western Han Dynasty general Chen Tang to Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty. King Xiutu naturally heard of it and knew its meaning: the heads of foreigners should be hung in Jijie Street where the barbarians live, so that they understand that those who dare to invade the powerful Han Empire People, no matter how far away they are, we must kill them.
What does this imply?
You must know that officials in the Han Dynasty paid attention to having "stories" to rely on when dealing with matters. As long as similar things and remarks happened in the previous Han Dynasty or this dynasty, they can use this as a reference.
Thinking of this, King Xiutu stood up tremblingly. He did not want to follow in the footsteps of King Zuoxian and King Guli, who had his head cut off and put in a box.
"I heard that the remnants of the Yellow Turbans are attacking Taiyuan County..."
