Please call me Your Majesty!

Chapter 81: Shengwu spits out food, the whole world is united (second update)
[In May of the third year of Kaiyang, Wang Huai saw that Chu Shizhao was growing stronger in the south and was extremely uneasy. Not long after, a new round of peasant uprisings broke out in Hebei, with tens of thousands of followers. Cangzhou was captured, and soon after, Hebei was taken by Dou Li and Gao Jiu.]

【Chu Shizhao sent people to appease Dou Li and Gao Jiu, ordering them to hand over their troops and horses, and respond to Tianfu's request to receive the reward of being appointed as generals.】

[Dou Li and Gao Jiu were originally suffering people. They rebelled to find a way out for themselves. Although they had heard of Chu Shizhao's reputation a long time ago, they were not very interested in joining the Zhou Dynasty. So, at the suggestion of their tribesmen, they rejected Chu Shizhao's good intentions.]

[In June of the third year of Kaiyang, Wang Huai wanted to form an alliance with Li Jin to fight against the great enemy in the south. Li Jin was able to rise to prominence due to the grace of the country and was very supportive of Emperor Zhengguang. However, the world was undergoing a major change, and although Li Jin was waiting for the right time to act, he was still unable to firmly choose to be an enemy of the Zhou Dynasty and betray his old master.]

【Wang Huai cursed loudly, "Fools should not be consulted."】

[In July of the third year of Kaiyang, Chu Shizhao continued to suppress the powerful and strengthen the imperial power in the south. At the same time, he continued to ease the internal conflicts between the literati and the common people, as well as the ruling group, and actively promoted the way of governing the country by a sage monarch and wise ministers.]

[Chu Shizhao generally adopted a lenient policy towards those old officials of the Great Zhou Dynasty who were willing to submit to him, or those warlords who ruled a certain area, or even those who rebelled.]

[Due to the "Public Security Memorial" and the reputation he had accumulated over a long period of time, Chu Shizhao quickly restored the entire south. ]

[Historical books also respectfully called the changes in people's hearts during this period: "Shengwu spit out food to feed his guests, and the world returned to its heart."]

[In August of the third year of Kaiyang, Chu Shizhao actively promoted the people in the south to resume production, allowing them to prioritize their own lives. In order to bring the people in distress in the north back to their hearts, he set up "charity houses" along the way. All the people who fled from the north to seek shelter could eat in the charity houses built by Chu Shizhao, and then continue their journey south to find a way to survive.]

[All of a sudden, tens of thousands of families left the war-torn north and crossed the river to the south.]

[In September of the third year of Kaiyang, Chu Shizhao personally led the army to welcome the people who crossed the river and headed south. He escorted the people and allowed them to eat in the "Yishe". Many people were moved by this.]

[Chu Shizhao was famous for his "policy and security". His actions of helping the people cross the river and releasing the innocent people on the road were benevolent and righteous, which made a large number of northern people move to the south.]

[In October of the third year of Kaiyang, Chu Shizhao was in charge of the south, and the people in the north were mostly leaning towards him. A large number of people missed the Zhou Dynasty and hated the chaotic world.]

[In the same month, Dou Li and Gao Jiu had a fierce battle with Wang Huai's army. They lost Cangzhou and had to abandon Cangzhou and flee for their lives.]

[Dou Li and Gao Jiu didn't know who to turn to. Dou Li thought that since Chu Shizhao had sent troops to appease them, they could go to the south to seek refuge. Gao Jiu thought that Dou Li was unreasonable.]

[“You and I are rebelling against the Zhou Dynasty. We are planning to overthrow the Zhou Dynasty. We have been treated with courtesy before, but we rejected him. Chu Shizhao will surely be angry and ashamed. If you and I go over there again, won’t we be humiliated?”]

[“Do you want to hear him laugh at the situation we have ended up in?”]

[“What’s more, we surrendered to him before because we had territory and people as capital, but now the two of us have neither territory nor people. If we go forward, we will be putting our lives and property in the hands of others.”]

[“Rather than joining a man we have already offended, it is better to choose another wise master.”]

[Gao Jiu, without saying anything, led the few remaining troops to join Li Jin, who was at odds with Wang Huai.]

[Dou Li was persuaded and planned to go with Gao Jiu. At this time, a humble scholar named Guo You under Dou Li's command put forward a different opinion.]

[“Wait a minute, General. Now is the best time to surrender to Emperor Shengwu.” Guo You said calmly, “Gao Jiu is narrow-minded. He only cares about the small gains in front of him, but not the overall situation. He has missed out on wealth and glory, and he doesn’t even realize it.”]

[Dou Li was extremely surprised, because he thought Gao Jiu was right. Now that they had neither territory nor troops, wouldn't it be humiliating to go and seek refuge with Emperor Shengwu, who had already recruited them?]

[“You and I have long heard of the good name of Emperor Shengwu in Cangzhou. He values ​​benevolence and justice, and keeps his word. This is what attracts heroes all over the world.”]

[“General, you rejected Emperor Shengwu’s invitation before because you had over 10,000 followers and Cangzhou as your base, and you were unwilling to submit. Now, you have neither followers nor base, so if you submit to Emperor Shengwu again, and Emperor Shengwu accepts you, doesn’t that further prove that he is eager to seek talents, accepts talents from all over the world, and has unparalleled benevolence and righteousness?”]

[“Troops and territory can be tokens of your loyalty, but the reputation of accepting talented people can also be a token of your loyalty, and it can even be more important than these two!”]

[In November of the third year of Kaiyang, under the persuasion of Guo You, Dou Li led hundreds of soldiers to the south and decided to surrender to Emperor Shengwu.]

[Chu Shizhao gladly accepted Dou Li and went out of the city a hundred miles to meet him, which made Dou Li flattered and regretful of his previous actions.]

[He is willing to lead a newly-built army and serve as the vanguard for Chu Shizhao.]

【Guo You also entered the palace to give advice to Chu Shizhao. 】【In December of the third year of Kaiyang, Wen Yu and Guo You met, but there was a rift between them. They had different political views. Wen Yu was upright and good at using open strategies and liked to attack people's hearts, while Guo You took risky moves and often used treacherous angles to judge the situation and break the situation from strange angles. In Wen Yu's opinion, his actions were either too cruel or too tricky. Such a way of giving advice was not conducive to Chu Shizhao's reputation and would definitely affect Chu Shizhao's rule. 】

【So Wen Yu often advised Chu Shizhao that he could listen to Guo You's opinions but not adopt them. 】

[On December 15th of the third year of Kaiyang, the two men simultaneously persuaded Chu Shizhao to issue an imperial decree to the people of the world, changing the reign title to Shengwu next year and requiring the people under his rule to use this reign title to prove the legitimacy of his rule.]

【Thus, the South officially adopted Chu Shizhao's reign title.】

[In January of the first year of Shengwu, after Gao Jiu surrendered to Li Jin, he tried his best to persuade Li Jin to attack Wang Huai and not to defend himself. If he only wanted to defend himself in Jinyang, Wang Huai would sooner or later attack Jinyang where Li Jin was in order to unify the north.]

【Li Jin's hesitant attitude made Gao Jiu speak frankly: "When Chang'an was in chaos, you were worried about the loss of Jinyang and the sudden attack of the Xiongnu and Wang Huai, so you did not make any efforts to stop Ma Su'an's rebels in time. Your judgment was correct, but for the Zhou Dynasty, you have failed in your duty and were not loyal to the emperor."】

[Li Fengning was quite disgusted with villains like Gao Jiu, especially when Gao Jiu deliberately used verbal traps to force her father to bear a bad name, which she absolutely could not accept.]

[“Emperor Kaiyang is stubborn and self-willed. His court is trying hard to weaken the military power of the Jiedushi. My father has to face the pressure of the Xiongnu invasion and worry about the betrayal of traitors. If he sends troops to cut off Ma Suan’s rebels and the Xiongnu capture Jinyang, wouldn’t this put these barbarians in danger of ruling the Central Plains?”]

[“Besides, Wang Huai is also a man with ulterior motives. If my father goes all out to fight Ma Su’an, and Wang Huai takes advantage of the situation, wouldn’t the world become even more chaotic?”]

[“As long as Emperor Kaiyang can stall for enough time, Ma Su’an’s danger can be eliminated in a snap.”]

[“By then, my father will have Jinyang in his hands, and there is still a possibility that he can save the Zhou Dynasty.”]

[“If one is loyal to the country but not to an incompetent emperor, does that mean he is not a loyal minister?”]

When Li Fengning learned of Chu Shizhao's death, he did almost nothing throughout the process. He was only thinking about getting to the bottom of the case.

Now that she knew the news about Chu Shizhao, she would never let her father be slandered by these people.

Now she just needs to withstand the pressure and wait for Chu Shizhao to attack. Then she can persuade her father to raise the banner of supporting the Zhou Dynasty and merge with them.

If Chu Shizhao didn't believe in such a good thing, Li Fengning would take the opportunity to persuade his father and propose a marriage between the two families. In this way, she could not only sell the Li family for a good price, but also get married successfully.

At this moment, Li Fengning had long forgotten his competitive and aggressive thoughts.

Now is not the time to act on impulse.

At least they have to get married first!
Otherwise, what should I do if Chu Shizhao is seduced by another woman? !

The other side.

Huan Yi looked at Liangzhou, which had a hundred thousand soldiers.

Duan Qi and Huangfu Jian have both been highly tied to the Huan family and manipulated by Huan Yi. They are in the same political system and are extremely difficult to separate.

This made her smile with satisfaction.

I am so fat in Liangzhou.

At this moment, Huan Yi was also waiting for Chu Shizhao to make an offer.

However, Huan Yi is also very scared now.

No one could have imagined that before Emperor Yongjin passed away, the situation in the world had already become so chaotic that a prince was almost burned to death while leading an imperial envoy to the south.

(End of this chapter)