On September 11th, the eighth year of Chongzhen, dozens of civil servants led by the three main civil servants Guo Quanshu, Chen Xingkai, and Yuan Gaofeng, and dozens of generals led by Wang Xiazi, Huang Dingquan and others, once again ran to Luo Zhixue collectively. Encourage advancement.
This time the persuasion was more formal, but according to tradition, Luo Zhixue still refused.
But after the rejection this time, everyone was elated, because everyone knew that according to tradition, it was three words.
After these three words, it was natural that he would officially proclaim himself emperor.
At this time, various preparations in the city for founding the country and proclaiming the emperor were coming to an end, and the streets in the city had been renovated and paved with loess.
The temporary Temple of Heaven has also been built.
The full set of formal attire and accessories used by Luo Zhixue for his ascension to the throne have been prepared, and several sets have been prepared as a precaution to avoid temporary damage without replacement.
Hanyang City was decorated with lights and colorful decorations, but Wuchang City across the river was bleak, especially Tang Hui, who looked sad.
After the news of Zhong Xiang's defeat reached the capital, Chongzhen directly issued an order to arrest Tang Hui and imprison him. The imperial envoy who sent the order and the Jin Yiwei who came to arrest him ran very fast.
He rushed all the way to Wuchang and arrested Tang Hui. At this time, Tang Hui was already imprisoned. Neither he nor others knew that the fate waiting for him was either exile or death.
There won't be a better ending.
After Tang Hui was arrested, naturally no one was in charge of the military affairs in Wuchang. As for Yang Sichang, the new prime minister elected by the imperial court and also the governor of Huguang and the military affairs of the five provinces.
This person is still going through the process of reviving his love affair.
Even if Chongzhen wants to retaliate against this person regardless of the political influence, he must follow the rules, especially the previous attempts to retaliate must be rejected.
Only after three attempts could Yang Sichang reluctantly agree to retaliate.
Even though the situation is tense now, there are no fewer procedures that need to be followed. It will take several months at least to complete this set of procedures.
Of course, although Yang Sichang could not officially take office yet, he had actually begun to handle affairs in Huguang and other places under the urgent need to take power.
Of course, it could not be in his own name, but he gave his own suggestions to the court, and asked the court to directly order the provincial governors to implement them.
The most important suggestion Yang Sichang gave to the court was containment.
This encirclement is different from enclosing the bandits. Instead, it is a targeted protection army. Now that the field battle is stronger, the imperial court should mobilize the surrounding provinces of northern Chu to blockade northern Chu in order to curb the thieves. Expansion capacity.
After curbing the growth of the rural protection army, slowly gather forces to counterattack!
This is a quite conservative strategy. Chongzhen was not interested in this strategy at first. What he wanted to hear more was that Yang Sichang said that he would gather forces to directly counterattack Xiangyang and eliminate the Bao thieves...
But Yang Sichang's plan was to rely on the strong city for defense, and the counterattack would be a year later.
However, many ministers also said that it was too difficult to counterattack now, and the court was fighting on multiple fronts, making it difficult to mobilize troops, so Chongzhen finally agreed.
At Yang Sichang's suggestion, the Ming court began to implement the blockade plan.
It was planned to carry out a comprehensive blockade around the northern part of Chu. For example, in Ruzhou, Zuo Liangyu's troops would mainly defend Ye County and other places, and other troops in Ruzhou would be stationed in Lushan County and blockade of Luyang Pass to prevent the rebels from sending troops. Central Plains, harming the Yellow River Basin.
Let the Ming army from Runing Prefecture and other places block the three passes of Yiyang to prevent the rebel army from leaving the Huaihe River area eastward.
They also sent troops from Shaanxi, Sichuan and other provinces to block strategic locations such as Hanzhong Prefecture and Kuizhou Prefecture.
He also asked officers and soldiers in the Jiangbei area of South Zhili to block the Taihu and Susong areas to prevent the rebels from invading the Jiangbei area of South Zhili.
At the same time, the Ming troops from Jiangxi, Chunan and other places were asked to gather their forces in the Wuchang area to prevent the bandits from crossing the river.
After the above-mentioned deployment is completed, according to the ideas of Chongzhen and the princes of the court, the offensive of the security army should be able to be suppressed.
But these have nothing to do with Tang Hui. Now he has become a prisoner.
When Tang Hui became a prisoner, preparations for founding the country and proclaiming himself emperor in Hanyang, across the river, were coming to an end.
On September 13, Baoxiang Army and civilian officials once again persuaded him to come in, but this time Luo Zhixue finally refused.
I have already rejected this three times. If you refuse the fourth time, you will really be a fool...
As soon as Luo Zhixue agreed to proclaim himself emperor, Huang Dingquan, Wang Xiazi, Guo Quanshu and other civil and military officials knelt down in accordance with etiquette and shouted long live!
Looking at the hundreds of people kneeling in front of him, Luo Zhixuerao had been preparing for this day for a long time, and had even rehearsed it by himself, but he still felt quite excited and even nervous.
Even when he said the words "I love you all the time", there was a hint of trembling in his voice.
It's just that at this time, everyone was in high spirits, so naturally no one noticed Luo Zhixue's inner nervousness.
After the persuasion is over, the formal enthronement ceremony will follow.
This set of rituals is very complicated. Luo Zhixue and the others are no longer a grassroots team, but a military group that controls the eight prefectures in northern Chu and has tens of thousands of troops. This time when the country was founded and proclaimed emperor, all the rituals were very... of formal.
During the enthronement ceremony, more people knelt down and shouted long live. From what Luo Zhixue could see, there were thousands of people kneeling in front and below.
The feeling of being shouted "Long Live" by thousands of people made his whole soul almost boil.
While listening to thousands of people shouting long live, he finally understood why so many people in the past dynasties wanted to rebel and become emperors. This feeling of looking down on all living beings was really indescribable.
At the same time, his ministers, especially the senior officials such as Guo Quanshu and Huang Dingquan who were saluting in front, were extremely excited. Even when they looked at Luo Zhixue from the corner of their eyes while saluting, they felt that Luo Zhixue was different from before. .
What was Luo Zhixue like in the past?
Before Luo Zhixue came to power, he mainly dressed as a scholar, wearing a robe, a square scarf, and occasionally a folding fan.
After Luo Zhixue came to power, in addition to wearing regular clothes in the inner house, Luo Zhixue basically wore military uniforms when going out. This was to show his control over the army.
At the same time, dressing up in military uniform can also make people ignore his age better.
After all, no matter what you say, Luo Zhixue is only sixteen years old, and he is still growing this year...
Dressing too young will give people a sense of immaturity and stability, so Luo Zhixue deliberately dresses in an older style every day. After taking power, he even wears military uniforms every day.
During this process, others' perception of Luo Zhixue gradually changed from a scholar to a military advisor, then to a general, and finally to a leader-like person.
But today, Luo Zhixue, who was wearing a royal robe, seemed to leave only one impression on everyone, and that was the emperor!
From today on, their major general will become the emperor!
As for who these ministers are, there is another reason why they are so happy today, that is, since they have all founded the country and proclaimed themselves emperors, then they are truly the founding heroes. After the enthronement ceremony is over, they will be rewarded based on their merits. It's time.
Many people are already thinking about what titles they can obtain.
The enthronement ceremony was complicated, and sitting through the whole process was very tiring, but even though they were tired, Luo Zhixue and a group of courtiers were still smiling.
After the enthronement ceremony, Luo Zhixue officially ordered that the country be named "Chu" and the era be named Chengshun. This year it was changed to the first year of Chengshun.
After the country's name and the year's name are officially determined by imperial edict, the whole set of founding and proclaiming emperor ceremonies can be considered completed.
However, for the new Chu Empire and Luo Zhixue and other monarchs and ministers, things were far from over.
After officially proclaiming himself emperor, Luo Zhixue discussed meritorious deeds and awarded titles to various civil and military officials.
Although they are all virtual titles with a salary and no actual fiefdom, this is still a great pursuit of a group of courtiers.
When Luo Zhixue was conferring titles, he comprehensively considered the qualifications and merits of his ministers. He also considered that the Chu Empire only occupied one part of northern Chu and would need to continue to expand in the future. After the unification of China, another large-scale canonization process was inevitable. .
Therefore, Luo Zhixue was more cautious about knighting Luo Zhixue this time, and had revealed the news to his ministers in advance. The title he would be awarded this time would not be too high. If he wanted a high title, he would have to establish it again in the subsequent battle for hegemony and unification. credit.
After comprehensive consideration, Luo Zhixue decreed that a total of eight people, including Wang Xiazi, Huang Dingquan, Lin Dongsheng, Xu He, Li Chengtong, Zhang Malin, An Yongduo, and Ma Dapao, were made marquis.
Zuo Yingzhe, Xu Zhixian, Dong Mingjie, Zhao Hongshu, Fei Bingqing, Han Ziping, Wei Kaifu, Yu Xiujie, Hu Hongzhuo, Qu Yangshu, Li Dongshao, Guo Quanshu, Yuan Gaofeng, Chen Xingkai and Ding Gangyi were granted the title of earl, a total of fifteen people.
Under the counts and marquises, Luo Zhixue also created dozens of viscounts and hundreds of barons.
As for the Duke, he has not been canonized yet.
Luo Zhixue made it clear to senior officials that the duke would not be canonized until after China was unified, and who would obtain the title of duke at that time would depend on their respective merits.
This time, the scale of the knighthood was very large. A total of more than 200 nobles were knighted above the baron level. Basically, officers with more seniority and higher positions and senior civil servants participated.
Even Dong Xinxin, the prefect of Anlu Prefecture who was demoted and had only been a traitor for a few months, was awarded the title of baron.
Although there was no duke in the conferment this time, Luo Zhixue also tried his best to cover as many people as possible. In order to cover more people, he specially picked up the viscounts and barons that had been canceled by the Ming Dynasty.
After all, many ministers have meritorious service, but they are not to the extent of being directly canonized as marquis or earl, and Luo Zhixue is not prepared to come up with some weird system of hereditary military positions as a supplement to low-level titles.
So I simply picked up the two levels of titles Viscount and Baron and used them again.
The large-scale conferral of knights made the senior generals and civil servants of the New Chu Empire smile with smiles, especially since they knew that the unification war was not over yet, and they would be able to obtain higher titles for their meritorious service in the future.
Even mid-level and low-level officers who have not been able to obtain knighthoods for the time being can still hope to obtain titles for their meritorious service in subsequent wars.
