When affairs are constantly repeated, time always passes quickly. From autumn to winter, Liu Chengyou's schedule has become more regular, and he is constantly reviewing, approving, and handling various similar military affairs. spent. A bit tiring, but fun.
Since the pacification of Jinghu, the situation in the Han Dynasty has been generally peaceful, with no external dangers, no internal disasters, and everything is calm. In terms of overall policy, we have begun to recuperate and alleviate the impact of the war.
Although the Han Dynasty has become more and more peaceful in recent years, it almost never goes without war. Looking back, in the nine years since the founding of the Han Dynasty, war has always been its main theme. Although they have achieved great success in suppressing rebellions internally and expanding territories externally, in the context of war, it is definitely not benign to the lives of the people.
Every time there is a war, people must be recruited to serve in front of the army. In addition, there are many projects for the court, such as building cities, building roads, digging canals, and regulating rivers... It can be said that by the eighth year of Qianyou, the Han Dynasty Despite the grand occasion, military and civilian fatigue was inevitable. Continuous war victories cannot conceal the fatigue behind them. If you go to the local areas, you will find that the lives of the Han people today are still very difficult, and there is still a gap between "food and clothing".
However, compared with previous turmoil, the domestic situation has always remained stable, the political situation is balanced, vassal towns have been eliminated, and the court under Liu Chengyou has adjusted policies from time to time, gradually easing and releasing the pressure and resentment of the people.
On the other hand, the Xuanweisi, the mouthpiece of the imperial court, began to gradually fulfill its function. After years of praising the Emperor of Han, it still had the effect of beguiling and comforting people. For the people at the bottom, as long as they can survive, there is no need to rebel. In addition, the court's several large-scale disaster relief operations have really won a lot of people's hearts.
Since the beginning of autumn, the biggest change in the DPRK has been the "Guo Family Incident", but it only stayed at the political level. Although the impact was large, the movement was small. In addition, there was an inventory of prisons across the country. In the past three months, with the cooperation of the imperial envoys and local officials, a total of tens of thousands of prison lawsuits were cleared, including more than 2,000 major cases involving human life.
In this process, hundreds of officials who were negligent and mismanaged were also dealt with. Those with high status involved state officials and Taoist officials, and several officials in the court were implicated. Among them, the Minister of Punishment was taken down, and the Prime Minister was also involved. Both Li Tao and Fan Zhi were reprimanded by Liu Chengyou. This was also Liu Chengyou's rectification of officialdom. He probably had this in mind when he first issued the "Edict to Clean Up Prisons."
At the same time, after a series of tedious discussions and implementation, the Dahan New Province political system was introduced. Hebei, Henan, and Gyeonggi Province were divided into five provinces, namely Hebei West Province, Hebei East Province, Huaibei Province, Gyeonggi Province, and Gyeonggi Province.
After entering winter, Kaifeng was gradually enveloped by cold and chill. The sky turned dark white, the cold wind blew in, and the lights in Chongzheng Hall also looked cold. Under the illumination of the palace candles, the Emperor of the Han Dynasty and several ministers sat and discussed politics for more than an hour, and it has not yet ended.
"Your Majesty, Quan Yong's inspection envoy Pan Mei has returned from the north and south of Lingnan and reported to the court that a peace treaty between the two countries has been concluded. Here is the peace treaty. Please see it for your Majesty!" Li Tao stood up and presented the seal to Liu Chengyou.
After flipping through it casually for a few times, Liu Chengyou couldn't help but smile: "Liu Sheng was so decisive after all that he agreed to everything without replying!"
"These people who have forgotten their ancestors, forced by the power of our dynasty and seeking temporary peace, can easily give up their national titles. Their defeat is not far away!" Li Tao sighed.
"I heard that it was the eunuchs, maids, Lin Yanyu and Lu Qiongxian who persuaded Liu Sheng!" Liu Chengyou looked like he understood his situation.
Fan Zhi's rigid face couldn't help but show contempt: "The great affairs of the country are actually in the hands of eunuchs and maids, which shows Liu Sheng's ignorance. Your Majesty only temporarily suspended the conquest, but he thinks he is safe, and there are bones in the grave!"
"How can mere eunuchs and palace maids mess up his government? The root cause is still Liu Sheng. He is a traitor and a hero of mine. He will conquer Panyu in the future and capture Lin and Lu. We can leave their corpses intact!" Liu Chengyou said in an understatement. Show pride.
"Do you know the name of the new country in Lingnan?" Liu Chengyou asked.
"It was initially planned to be called 'Da Yue', but Pan Mei was in Panyu, and because he was a minister in An'an, it was not enough to be called Da Yue, so he was forced to go to 'Da' and called 'Yue'. In order to avoid conflict with Wu and Yue, it was renamed 'Guangdong' . On the fifteenth day of this month, Liu Sheng went to the outskirts of Beijing to pay homage to the ancestral temple, changed the country's name to 'Guangdong', and demoted himself to the Lord of Guangdong!" Li Tao reported.
He nodded and stared at the items of Sui Gong again. The big man opened his mouth and decided to give 1,000 jins of gold, 3,000 jins of silver, 2,000 bolts of silk, 50,000 jins of medicinal materials, and an additional 100,000 shi of rice. However, Nan Han had no intention of counter-offering and was very generous.
After thinking for a while, he ordered: "In addition to the annual tribute from Lingnan, except for the gold, silver, and silk sent to Tokyo, the medicinal materials and rice are all kept in Hunan for future use. Obviously, this arrangement is for future use. It means to attack for food.
"yes!"
"Over in Hunan, please allocate some more money!" Liu Chengyou looked at the Third Secretary Xue Juzheng again: "It won't be easy for Zan Jurun and the others to clean up the mess over there!"
"yes!"
After nearly half a year, the situation in Hunan has finally stabilized. The most important problem of food shortage has been solved. More than 100,000 shi of food have been consumed to provide relief to the people.
The Daosi Yamen were basically perfected, the merging of prefectures and counties was progressing smoothly, the ruling order of the prefectures and counties was also consolidated, and all policies and laws of the Han Dynasty were promulgated very efficiently.
Statistics on household registration have also come to fruition. According to the August report of the Jinghu Dao Secretary, under Jinghu Dao, excluding the three places in Jingnan, a total of 93,788 households were registered, of which 20,387 were newly registered, including some liberated hermits and refugees. , as well as suppressed bandits, thieves, and barbarians.
In order to conquer the barbarians in the five states, with the help of Qin Zaixiong and other Yao and Miao leaders, a total of 7362 barbarian households were organized, and the results were gratifying. Although there were still those who were stubborn and even invaded prefectures and counties, they were all severely suppressed by the guarding Han army. In order to maintain public security, we have always used both suppression and appeasement. Although appeasement is gentle, we are also ruthless in our extermination.
As for the redistribution of land and means of production, it is still being implemented. Hunan has a vast territory, sparsely populated areas, crisscrossed water veins, and plenty of land suitable for farming. The conflict over land was secondary, population was the main one, and the main thing the court focused on was plundering and controlling, and those who were placed in the register were still the residents. Judging from the situation in Hunan, land reclamation and agricultural development are far from saturation, and there is still a lot of room for surplus.
"Pan Mei went south to Panyu in September. If it is already the end of October, it lasted more than forty days. If he stayed in Lingnan for such a long time, I think he gained a lot!" Liu Chengyou added.
Earlier, after receiving the goodwill from Lingnan, the emperor did not send anyone from Tokyo. Instead, he flew Pan Meichijie, who was staying in Hunan, to Panyu to sign the treaty with full authority. From this incident, it can be seen that Liu Chengyou valued Pan Mei, and the fact that he did not use civil servants but military generals to negotiate peace had profound meaning in itself.
When he was ordered to go south, Pan Mei was secretly instructed by the emperor to make a personal trip to inspect and explore Lingnan's geography, transportation, people's conditions, and armaments in order to prepare for the future southern expedition. From the emperor's secret order, Pan Mei also realized that he would be of great use when he marched in the future, so he worked very hard to stay in Lingnan for so long.
At this time, after listening to Liu Chengyou's emotion, Chai Rong stood up again and reported: "Your Majesty, the Privy Council has received a memorial from Pan Mei, writing about the enemy's military affairs, defenses and city defenses he observed along the way to Lingnan. It’s very detailed. We have also drawn up a strategy for marching southward, please review it!”
"This Pan Mei is so impatient, can he be restrained? I asked him to sign the peace treaty, but he thought about going south to use troops, and even considered the strategy of entering the army!" After reading the memorial, Liu Chengyou picked up the album in his hand, He said with a smile.
The smile gradually faded. Liu Chengyou looked at Chai Rong and said quietly: "Although the peace agreement has been reached, we need to start preparations in advance to march south!"
Understanding, Chai Rong calmly replied to Liu Chengyou and said: "Your Majesty, according to the previous troop preparations, the troops and horses of Jinghu have been properly arranged, and the training for crossing the mountains and heading south has begun in Quan and Chen. The Qian army has been formed. Three thousand soldiers, all of whom are Miao and Yao warriors from the five states, are ready to be transferred to Yongzhou for training. There are also fifteen military officers to serve as them!"
After a pause, Chai Rong continued: "The Privy Council plans to hoard arms, food and grass in Hunan for two years, train the main soldiers of the Southern Expedition, and then choose the time to mobilize troops according to changes in the current situation!"
"Okay!" Liu Chengyou nodded slightly: "Liu Sheng wants peace, so I will give him two years of peace!"
As for two years later, maybe it won't take two years, and the paper peace treaty can be torn up. In this process, the Han Dynasty had to first tear up the peace agreement with Meng Shu.
