Please call me Your Majesty!

Chapter 111 I don’t want the throne!

After Chu Shizhao's strike, the entire court was basically paralyzed.

He killed too many people and failed to control his strength, which resulted in a large number of vacancies. The bad thing was that Chu Shizhao had no way to fill these vacancies immediately.

As a result, lower-level agencies were unable to operate in real time, so that many policies from higher-level agencies could not be effectively introduced and implemented. Even higher-level officials had to act on behalf of lower-level officials in order to ensure the normal operation of the court.

But Chu Shizhao could only do that.

If he were Zhu Gaochi, he would not have so many troublesome things to deal with. With the support of all officials, many things could be handled easily.

The problem is that although Chu Shizhao has initially gained control of the court, most people are unwilling to obey his orders. Even though Chu Shizhao holds military power, people from these big families still don't think that Chu Shizhao dares to take action against them. Many things are dragged out, and some people are unwilling to do things for Chu Shizhao. They even talk about irrelevant things and deliberately disgust Chu Shizhao.

In addition, Chu Shizhao did not want to use such violence at first, which instead made these aristocratic families become more aggressive.

Some people wanted to plot to overthrow Chu Shizhao, which made Chu Shizhao determined to kill these people in one breath.

[Your administrative efficiency has dropped by 80%, and your policy implementation rate has increased by 50%. ]

The efficiency decreased because Chu Shizhao hit the aorta with his sword, killing a large number of powerful officials, and no one has been found to take charge of these affairs for the time being.

But who can blame it?
Chu Shizhao had fought his way out of mountains of swords and seas of fire, and he would not tolerate these scholars from big families who took themselves too seriously.

If they could work conscientiously for Chu Shizhao, Chu Shizhao would not care about their background at all. However, these people not only did not work, but also held Chu Shizhao back.

Killing early or late is killing.

If the killing is done later, the court can have a smooth transition and it won't be so bloody, but Chu Shizhao's environment is too bad now. Taking action while the soldiers and horses are strong and the combat effectiveness of the three prefecture armies still exists is the best option.

Furthermore, Chu Shizhao did not want power to be in the hands of others. He wanted to personally oversee the affairs so that he would have a better space to govern the country.

Now Chu Shizhao is focusing on the numbers.

When some things are done, one value will decrease, but another value will increase. It depends on which value is more useful to Chu Shizhao now, so he will try his best to fill up one project.

Balanced development is only applicable under particularly good circumstances.

The current situation is extremely dangerous. Chu Shizhao can only increase one value to the maximum in order to save himself.

Without the big court, Chu Shizhao used his own team to set up a small court. As long as he ensured that the official business of the big court could be handled by this small court, it would be a win-win for Chu Shizhao.

It is worth lamenting that by doing this, Chu Shizhao could easily allow one of his ministers to increase his power instantly, because there would be many vacant affairs and one minister would be in charge of many affairs, so Chu Shizhao often kept himself idle.

Let other people handle all matters, big or small, and try to keep the final decision-making power and arbitrary authority in your own hands as much as possible.

[You began to vigorously promote and fully employ people from humble backgrounds to important positions, further breaking the privilege of the aristocratic families to monopolize politics.]

Chu Shizhao began to look for scholars who were talented, knowledgeable, and whose ancestors had been wealthy near Chang'an, and ordered them to serve as officials in the court.

In this round of selection, Chu Shizhao did not consider morality but only political ability.

The comprehensive introduction of people from humble backgrounds does not mean that the aristocratic families have no influence in the court. Chu Shizhao is not a bipolar tube, and the world is not black and white.

In the current state of the Great Zhou Dynasty, the aristocratic families have the inheritance of knowledge and the initiative, so it is impossible to completely abandon these people.

Even if they were from humble backgrounds, they were still aristocratic families and were once wealthy and powerful.

As for the bloodline of the Chinese nation, which can be passed down to later generations, whose ancestors have been rich, the main reason why poverty cannot last for more than three generations is that there will be no poor people after three generations.

Before Chu Shizhao ushered in the era of large-scale printing and temporarily had the ability to fully expand knowledge, it was still difficult to employ real civilians into the court.

What Chu Shizhao has to do now is definitely not to unilaterally confront the aristocratic families.

Instead, it guides these aristocratic families and the poor families who have newly entered the court to engage in a new round of internal competition in the workplace. Whoever does a good job will have a high position and power in the court, and the status of their family will be improved. Whoever does not do well will be deposed.

Of course, Chu Shizhao cannot push these aristocratic families too hard. He has to give them some mercy for the sake of their old employees. As long as they don't make any mistakes and don't have any errors in principle, they can still be tolerated.

Most of the people who were actually killed were not conducive to the long-term development of the group. They did not seek advancement in the workplace, but were scheming against each other every day, mainly trying to bring down others in order to strengthen themselves. This kind of cancer must not be allowed to remain.

If the current Great Zhou Dynasty wants to revive, the old workplace environment must be injected with an incentive-based reward system.

You have to tell your subordinates that you have a path to advancement, only then will they be willing to go crazy and work with you.

The wealthy and powerful families were unwilling to do the work and wanted to solve the problem once and for all. They felt that they had great wealth and could live a stable life with their background and qualifications. So Chu Shizhao brought in the poor families and chased after them, making them feel the pressure and the sense of urgency that if they didn't work hard, they would be pulled down.

It is imperative that everyone is eager to make progress.

Only now did Chu Shizhao appreciate another of Huan Sheng's strengths: this man was truly eager to make progress.

Chen Ka, the most ambitious minister under his command, thinks day and night about how to achieve great achievements.

Chu Shizhao was so worried that if he didn't do his job well one day and couldn't be the wise ruler in Huansheng's mind, he would be dragged down from the throne by Huansheng.

Therefore, Chu Shizhao was actually not idle either. He was also handling the government affairs at hand at a high intensity to conclude this major operation to purge the court.

[In December of the 31st year of Yongjin, Chu Shizhao promoted Guo You to be the Minister of Punishment and Wen Yu to be the Minister of Personnel.]

【Huan Sheng took the position of Shangshu Zuo Pushe and temporarily assumed the position of Minister of Revenue.】

【Chu Shizhao promoted Dong Fei to be the Minister of Industry.】

Chu Shizhao accidentally killed too many people. When he was making personnel arrangements before, he often had to consider how to promote or demote someone in secret, or even give them a high-honored empty position and replace them with his own people. Now, he doesn't have to think about it. He can just find a chance to let his own people take the vacant position.

【Guo You and Wen Yu have always been at odds with each other.】

【Huan Sheng was often dissatisfied with Dong Fei's approach, thinking that he was too pedantic and lacked the flexibility of a minister.】

In the last simulation, Guo You and Wen Yu had a quarrel. These two people just don't get along.

The former is about ingenious strategies and the latter is about governing the country in a kingly way.

Moreover, Chu Shizhao discovered that Guo You and Wen Yu were both officials in Beijing at first, but their positions were very low. They both resigned and retired after serving for less than a year.

The latter returned to Huating overnight to work as a local official, while the former traveled around the world, mainly traveling.

More importantly, Chu Shizhao felt the hidden appeal of "Memorial on Public Security". In the Zhou Dynasty, many scholars who had relatively upright positions and who truly cared about state affairs all highly praised "Memorial on Public Security".

Therefore, when Chu Shizhao found these people and gave them important tasks, most of them were willing to work for Chu Shizhao. [In March of the 32nd year of Yongjin, Chu Shizhao issued an edict to encourage farming and sericulture, reduce taxes, help the poor and disaster victims, and nourish war horses and strengthen military equipment.]

[Chu Shizhao had a tough attitude towards his ministers and used many repressive measures to intimidate them, which gradually brought the central power into Chu Shizhao's hands.]

[In May of the 32nd year of the Yongjin reign, Chu Shizhao personally trained a cavalry force of less than a thousand men.]

[Chu Shizhao had long intended to conquer the north, and the Xiongnu often tried to invade the border, which forced Chu Shizhao to make plans early.]

【Therefore, Chu Shizhao often inspected the army, rewarded horse breeding, and intentionally trained cavalry and nourished war horses to strengthen the military. 】

[In June of the 32nd year of the Yongjin reign, Chu Shizhao personally wrote a letter to the governor of Liangzhou.]

[Soon after, Liangzhou sent an envoy, Huangfu Jian, along with 3,000 fine horses.]

[In July of the 32nd year of the Yongjin reign, Huangfu Jian was retained in the court as an official in the capital and was conferred the title of General Wuwei.]

[In the same month, Chu Shizhao married Huan Sheng's sister Huan Yi.]

[In August of the 32nd year of the Yongjin reign, Lu Yi and Ma Su'an decided to start a rebellion, and in order to ensure that nothing could go wrong, they conspired with the Xiongnu royal court in the grasslands.]

【Lu Yi had been secretly preparing for rebellion for a long time. He believed that there were many ministers in the court who were dissatisfied with Chu Shizhao's rule. Now Chu Shizhao and the Huan family of Liangzhou were united and becoming increasingly powerful, which was extremely disadvantageous to him. He should kill Chu Shizhao before he could sweep the country and achieve centralized rule, otherwise there would be endless troubles.】

[He built a city called Xiongwu City in the north of Fanyang County. On the surface, this city was for defense against invasion, but in fact it was for storing weapons and food, so as to defend Fanyang. There were more than 20,000 war horses and countless cattle and sheep. These were accumulated over many years of operation. In addition, the Lu family was a famous family in Fanyang, and Lu En was once a minister in the court. With many generations of foundation, they were very powerful in the local area.]

[Congratulations on triggering the golden disaster event - 'Luma Rebellion'. ]

[Lu Yi once served as the governor of Datong, and Ma Suan is now the governor of Fanyang. They have attracted many talented people around them.]

[In order to ensure the success of this mission, Ma Su'an collected various taxes from the people in the name of the court every month, and the people were left with no means of living.]

[Now, most of the people have been deceived by Ma Su'an, thinking that these heavy taxes are imposed on them by the court. This has led many farmers to join Ma Su'an's army out of indignation and prepare to fight against the official army of the Great Zhou Dynasty.]

[In September of the 32nd year of the Yongjin reign, the Xiongnu agreed to lend troops to Ma Suan, and they joined forces to launch an offensive toward the north of the Great Zhou Dynasty. Later, Daning Prefecture was breached by the Xiongnu again. After clearing out Daning Prefecture, the Xiongnu followed Ma Suan's troops and marched toward Jinyang.]

[Li Jin was stationed in Jinyang. Facing the Xiongnu army approaching, he fortified his city and cleared the fields, trying his best to avoid field battles with the Xiongnu. In Jinyang, Li Jin had only more than 2,000 cavalry.]

[In October of the 32nd year of the Yongjin era, the troops led by Lu Yi crossed the Yellow River and arrived at Chenliu County in Kaifeng Prefecture. Soon after, Zhao Zhengji, the governor of Qingzhou on the other side of the battle line, was unable to resist and decided to surrender.]

【Seeing the surrendered soldiers from Qingzhou, Lu Yi became angry and blamed the Yongjin Emperor for his poor judgment of people and mistrust of his confidants. In addition, the army did not have enough food for the surrendered soldiers, so he let the surrendered soldiers kill each other, and whoever survived would follow his army.】

[Many people did not dare to attack their colleagues, so Lu Yi ordered the execution of those who did not move. It was not until these government troops suffered heavy casualties that Lu Yi stopped their practice and ordered those government troops who were willing to kill their colleagues to join his troops.]

[In November of the 32nd year of the Yongjin reign, Zhao Zhengji, as the governor of Qingzhou, had enjoyed peace for too long. Moreover, he was a civil official without much ability, and he was also a close confidant of the Yongjin Emperor, which made him feel uneasy.]

【What's more, his original intention of surrendering to Lu Yi was to avoid the war and to prevent the deaths of civilians and government troops. However, he never expected Lu Yi to be so violent that the local people suffered. Seeing this, he jumped down from the city wall to express his repentance.】

【Lu Yi laughed heartily and left Zhao Zhengji's body exposed to the sun for three days.】

[In December of the 32nd year of the Yongjin era, the combined forces of Ma Su'an and the Xiongnu began to besiege Jinyang. Li Jin fought hard against them, but his second son, Li Shengquan, was unfortunately killed on his way to Datong to borrow troops.]

[In January of the 33rd year of Yongjin, Xu Hao, the governor of Datong, believed that he was not capable enough to resist the offensive of the Xiongnu and Ma Suan, so he decided to write a letter of surrender, which greatly displeased his general Yang Zhuting.]

[Yang Zhuting and other Datong generals and colleagues remonstrated with the army. They killed Xu Hao and continued to defend the city of Datong, putting up a tenacious resistance against the Xiongnu army.]

[In February of the 33rd year of Yongjin, Chu Shizhao immediately raised an army and decided to personally lead his troops to rush to the aid of Jinyang.]

【However, Huan Sheng persuaded Chu Shizhao to stay in the central government to prevent the officials in the court from making a fuss.】

[To put it more bluntly, Huan Sheng believed that the power of the frontier governors was enormous, and now that there were foreign enemies that could consume their power, it would be easier to pacify the northern border.]

[When the strength of these places is exhausted, the imperial court will send troops again. This will be a good opportunity to reap the benefits, and it is also the best time to counterattack. ]

【However, Chu Shizhao did not agree with Huan Sheng's point of view this time. 】

[After Chu Shizhao convened a court meeting, he and his ministers parted on bad terms. Many people believed that Huan Sheng's opinion was the most suitable for the current political environment, and many people were unwilling to take the risk of sending troops.]

[“Do you have to see the Xiongnu cavalry approaching the city before you know how to rush to the frontier to help?”]

[This time, Chu Shizhao was quite furious. ]

[“I don’t want the throne.”]

[“At first, I just wanted to survive. I just wanted to survive in this damn world.”]

[“When I was young, I wanted to fight for the country and make contributions. I didn’t want to inherit the throne of a prince. I wanted to be a general who conquered the world. But now? Look, every step you take requires me to weigh the pros and cons. Weigh the pros and cons.”]

[“Yes, Jinyang was taken, and the threat from the Jiedushi was gone. Datong was taken, and another Jiedushi died, but what?”]

[“Without the Jiedushi, there is still Lu Yi, Ma Suan, and the Xiongnu behind them.”]

[“Now Jinyang and Datong have asked me for help. If I sit back and do nothing, how can I be called a ruler and a subject?”]

[“Only when I regard them as my subjects can they call me their master. Don’t you understand this truth?”]

[“If I do not regard them as my subjects, then what is the point of talking about the whole world coming to my side?”]

【Speaking of this, Chu Shizhao's anger grew stronger.】

[He no longer used the so-called royal authority, but waved his sleeves and shouted: "I have made up my mind. You can send troops to fight against the rebels."]

[In March of the 33rd year of the Yongjin reign, Chu Shizhao officially took office as the new emperor after three refusal requests. He no longer governed the country and controlled the army as regent.]

[“Since there is no general in the court, I will be the general.”]

[“It is only natural that a king dies for his country.”]

[“The entire army must not delay even a single step. Travel light and march quickly to Jinyang to provide assistance. Enter the city and replenish supplies on the spot. This is my military order.”]

In the picture, a cavalry of less than a thousand people followed Chu Shizhao's steps and rushed towards Jinyang, where the fighting on the front line was the most intense.

The organization of this cavalry was named Beiwei Army.

(End of this chapter)