My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 810 Liu Bei Becomes Emperor
In the eighteenth year of Jian'an, on the first day of November, early in the morning, in the northern suburbs of Luoyang, at the Imperial Ancestral Temple of the Han Dynasty.

An altar was recently built on the south side of the Luoyang Taimiao. The soil was still new and it was surrounded by a newly built stone wall. The height of the platform was no more than 20 feet and 6 feet, which looked quite simple.

More than half a month had passed since Liu Bei's army entered Luoyang City. Liu Bei's coronation ceremony was delayed until now, not because he was not anxious or deliberately suspenseful, but because there were too many things to prepare.

Luoyang City had just been burned by war, so he couldn't just put out the embers and ascend the throne, right? He had to at least repair the places that needed repairing.

When Liu Bei's army came, it was mainly military commanders who accompanied him, with only a few civil officials who understood military affairs and financial officials accompanying them. The civil officials who were responsible for etiquette and law were all in various places in the rear area.

After Liu Bei entered the city, he always summoned all the civil servants to Luoyang so that he could advance the subsequent work.

Otherwise, the coronation ceremony would not only lack people to watch the ceremony, but also not be lively and decent enough. There would not even be enough people to work. The emperor was a minor clan member who joined the major clan and revived the Han Dynasty. How should this ceremony process be carried out? Did Zhuge brothers understand? In fact, they did not understand. Lu Su, Pang Tong and Zhou Yu did not understand it either.

Professionals should do professional things. At this time, people like Chen Lin, Wang Can and Xu Jing should be brought in, and those ministers of courtesy and law who were originally in the Luoyang court and later fled from Cao Cao's rule and returned to their hometown to live in seclusion (not referring to Xun Yu) should be called in to make full efforts.

It would also take time to wait for the court officials who had fled to return. Liu Bei also sent troops to set up post stations around Luoyang to provide food and wine and to be responsible for reception. After all this, a month or so was considered very fast.

Anyway, now it is the first day of November, and all the conditions are finally in place.

……

Early in the morning of that day, Liu Bei, the soon-to-be-throne Emperor of the Han Dynasty, dressed in the imperial robe and crown, rode a six-chariot with golden legs, pulled by eight white horses, and slowly came to the altar in the south of the city. However, he did not go directly to the altar, but went around it first and went straight to the Taimiao.

Before ascending the throne, the first thing to do is to comfort the ancestors and the gods, explaining the unbearableness of the chaotic times and how one had no choice. This has been the old custom since ancient times.

This set of rules of the Han Dynasty is very old and records are scarce, so later readers may not be familiar with it. However, anyone who has watched "Those Things in the Ming Dynasty" should be familiar with the question that Xie Jin stopped Zhu Di when he entered Nanjing and asked him, "Should Your Highness enter the palace first? Should you visit the mausoleum?"

And what Xie Jin said was actually just copying the precedents of the ancients.

When a small clan wants to join a big clan, they must first sincerely cry to their ancestors and explain what twists and turns and what accidents they encountered over the years that forced them to do so.

Liu Bei arrived at the gate of the Taimiao, and Guan, Zhang and Zhuge brothers followed behind him. The rest of the people stood far away on the periphery, led by Zhao Yun to watch over them, at least ten feet away.

The Taimiao has several palace walls, which are divided into several courtyards, with a total of seven palace-type buildings.

The so-called "Seven Temples of the Son of Heaven" means that every emperor in every dynasty would build seven ancestral temples - not only to enshrine the spirit tablets of seven generations of ancestors, but also to be divided into seven temples in terms of architecture.

In the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, when Liu Xiu established his capital in Luoyang, he built a separate temple for Emperor Taizu Gaohuangdi Liu Bang. Emperor Wen and Emperor Wu also had temples, but other emperors of the Western Han Dynasty did not have independent temples at the time. After Liu Xiu conquered Chang'an and "collected the gods of the Chang'an ancestral temple and returned to the east", he put the other emperors together in one temple.

After freeing up some temple quotas in this way, Liu Xiu could leave them to his great-grandfather and several generations of ancestors.

Later, during the Eastern Han Dynasty, every time the emperor changed, Liu Xiu had to have a separate temple, which could not be changed. The last three temples could be adjusted according to the emperor's great-grandfather, grandfather, and father. When a new emperor came, the original emperor's great-grandfather's generation would be invited to the "combined temple" with a bunch of tablets.

Cai Yong, a contemporary of Liu Bei, once wrote a special article on the textual research of rituals and laws, which mentioned that "Xiaoming established the temple of Shizu to show that the ancestor who received the mandate again had made great contributions. The descendants followed the frugality and did not change the temple. They all kept the master in it. It was established by the sage and is the law of a king."

After Luoyang was burned by Dong Zhuo and Liu Xie was controlled by Cao Cao, another incident happened.

That is, when Cao Cao moved the capital to Xu County, he felt that it was too troublesome to rebuild so many ancestral temples in Luoyang, so he requested that "the four emperors He, An, Shun, and Huan had no merits and should not be called ancestors. Also, the three queens Gonghuai, Jingyin, and Gongmin were not legitimate wives, and should not be called empresses. Please remove their titles." Liu Xie's reply was "The decree said: Yes."

(Note: Historical fact: Cao Cao in history also did this)
The newest ancestral temple in Luoyang enshrined only a few emperors of the Eastern Han Dynasty, which made it easier for Liu Bei to bypass those who "challenged Huan and Ling".

Therefore, Liu Bei did not pay attention to those later emperors, but only offered sacrifices to Gaozu, Wen, Wu, and Guangwu, and reported the cause and effect.

Liu Bei originally had no chance to do all of this at that time and space, because in history he was called the King of Hanzhong in Hanzhong and the Emperor in Chengdu. He could only offer sacrifices to his ancestors from afar and burn memorials to express his gratitude to God. It has to be said that this is a bit of a pity.

But in this life, the situation was completely different. He could go to the Taimiao in person and make things clear in person, which invisibly further strengthened the legitimacy of his succession.

When Liu Bei walked to the door of the innermost main hall, Zhuge Jin and others had to stop. He had no right to enter that place and could only listen from afar outside the door.

Before entering the main hall, Liu Bei took off his shoes, untied the double-edged swords hanging on both sides of his waist, and gave one to Zhuge Jin and Zhuge Liang respectively, asking them to help hold them. Only then did Liu Bei turn around and enter the main hall empty-handed.

The moment he stepped into the main hall, Liu Bei seemed to recall the hardships and difficulties of the years, and felt compassion for the experiences of the people and the military over the years. He couldn't help but feel sad, and it was truly from the bottom of his heart.

After being slightly sad for a while, Liu Bei took out a long scroll made of brocade from the wide sleeves of his robe. On the scroll was an essay in which he cried out to the previous emperors in his own tone.

The fu was written by Wang Can - it's not that Chen Lin's writing is not as good as Wang Can's, but Wang Can's expertise is more suitable for this type of writing. Wang Can studied the relevant etiquette carefully with Cai Yong.
For example, the principles behind the "Emperor Xiaoming established the temple of Shizu to show that his ancestor had made great contributions, and his descendants followed the principle of frugality and did not change the temple" mentioned in the previous article were all the results of Cai Yong's research, which most other people in the late Han Dynasty did not understand.

Cai Yong's original notes had long been lost during the rebellion of Dong Zhuo and Wang Yun. After Cai Yong was killed, Wang Yun was afraid that he would leave behind "slanderous books", so he specifically cleared Cai Yong's notes. Cai Yong's knowledge was also entirely based on Cai Yan's later dictation and his disciples Gu Yong, Wang Can and other disciples' retelling.

Gu Yong didn't like the job of carrying a sedan chair. He was a low-key person, so he relied on Wang Can in this regard.

Liu Bei read the fu written for him by Wang Can in a moving voice, then burned it in front of the coffin, poured wine on it, and asked his attendants to distribute the offerings.

After completing all the procedures for reporting to the temple, it was already the end of the Chen hour.

Liu Bei returned to the gate of the Taimiao and the high platform where the ceremony was held, and began the process of ascending the throne.

There is no need to elaborate on the cumbersome formalities and etiquette in the process. Most of them are similar to the original historical situation when he became emperor, but there are some differences.

After all, in the original history, Liu Bei had to say that Liu Xie was dead and he had to wear mourning clothes for him. But in this life, Liu Xie was really dead, and he had held a memorial service a few months ago. Zhuge Jin, as the prime minister, led all the civil officials and petitioned from the audience: the former emperor was killed, and the world has been without a master until now. Zong Bo fought against the rebellion, expelled Cao Cao, recovered Luoyang, and avenged the former emperor, so he should be the emperor.

Liu Bei still had to be modest: "The thief Cao usurped the throne and almost overthrew the sacred weapon of the Han Dynasty. However, the will of heaven has not ended the Han Dynasty. Today, I have recaptured Luoyang and restored the old capital. I will naturally restore the emperor to the throne to calm the people.

But the position of the emperor still needs to be chosen from among the royal family, and the elders with deep moral character should be chosen. How can I covet the sacred artifact just because I have military merits? "

Zhuge Jin and others also said: "Zong Bo's merits and virtues are great, and everyone in the world looks up to him. How can he win people over with his military prowess?"

At the same time, Liu Xie's son, Liu Xi, the King of Shanyang, bowed to Liu Bei and made a sincere request: "When the late emperor was alive, he always lamented that his virtue was insufficient, which led to the rebellion of Dong Zhuo, Cao Cao and others. He also said that our sons were far less virtuous than the late emperor. Among all the royal families in the world, only the great clan master has set an example for the Liu family in terms of merit and virtue, and no one in the world would disobey him."

There is some more long-winded nonsense later, so I will not elaborate on it. In short, I am proving from various angles that there is no other candidate for this position.

Seeing that the sons of the previous emperor all claimed to be without virtue and had caused chaos in the world, Liu Bei no longer refused, climbed to the highest point of the high platform, took the seal and ribbon, placed it on the table in front of him, and accepted the worship of all officials.

After receiving the gift, according to history, Liu Bei should have announced the change of the reign title at this time. However, the situation in this life was different, so even though he still secretly decided on the reign title of Zhangwu, he could not use it immediately.

Originally in history, Cao Pi usurped the Han Dynasty and established himself as emperor in November of the year after Cao Cao's death. Cao Pi was changing the dynasty, so he naturally didn't need to care about the reign title of the 25th year of Jian'an, or even the first year of Yankang. He could have directly changed it to Huangchu.

However, Liu Bei in that life became emperor in April of the following year. The era name of Jian'an had long been gone, so there was no problem for Liu Bei to directly use Zhangwu.

But now, from the death of Liu Xie to the ascension of Liu Bei to the throne, there have been only more than four months. Liu Xie died in June of the eighteenth year of Jian'an, and now it is the first day of November.

Since they were all emperors of the Han Dynasty, even if Liu Bei was a side branch that joined the main family, the Jian'an era name could not be directly removed, so it would continue to be used for two months and then changed again on the first day of the first lunar month of the next year.

Fortunately, it was winter and Liu Bei had nothing to do in the next two months. This season was not suitable for fighting, as supplies were difficult due to the cold weather. The area around Luoyang had been badly damaged by the war, so Liu Bei did not have to do a lot of things under the reign of Jian'an. He could wait until after the New Year to take drastic and practical actions.

After dealing with the issue of the reign title, the next step is to enthrone the empress, crown prince, kings, and ministers.

In this life, Mi gave birth to Liu Bei's eldest son Liu Feng, and the child grew up safely. In addition, Mi is still alive, and her family background is more noble than Gan's, so she is undoubtedly the queen.

(Note: In history, when Liu Bei was alive, he never posthumously conferred the title of Empress to Lady Gan, but only gave her the posthumous title of "Lady Huangsi". It was only after Liu Chan ascended the throne that he posthumously conferred her the title of "Empress Zhaolie". Therefore, Lady Gan was originally a mother who was honored by her son, because she was considered the Empress of the previous emperor only after her son became the emperor.)
Liu Feng, Liu Bei's eldest son, was naturally also the crown prince.

Liu Chan and others were named kings as usual.

Afterwards, various ministers were given titles, but Zhuge Jin and Zhuge Liang were temporarily unable to obtain any more titles, so they remained as Si Tu and Shang Shu Ling.

Liu Bei did consider giving Zhuge Jin the title of Prime Minister, but Zhuge Jin earnestly said that the proposal to "restore the position of Prime Minister" was originally a presumptuous attempt by Cao Cao to monopolize power and tamper with the laws of the Han Dynasty. Your Majesty should reform the old and establish the new, and should not continue Cao Cao's rebellious move.

This point is indeed very convincing, because Liu Bei's camp has been promoting this over the years. The fact that Cao Cao established a prime minister was an important proof that he was "actually a traitor to the Han Dynasty."

Liu Bei didn't want to be fickle right away, so he had to put the idea aside.

However, the position of Sikong is somewhat sensitive, because before Cao Cao became the prime minister, he held the position of Sikong.

On the other hand, before becoming emperor, Liu Bei had always held the position of Grand Marshal. If this last official position of Liu Bei before becoming emperor was casually awarded to a minister, it would inevitably make people feel uneasy.

It is just like in later generations, before Li Shimin became emperor, he served as Shangshu Ling. Later in the Tang Dynasty, whenever the Shangshu Province needed a chief official, the Zuo Pushe was always the highest-ranking one, who was actually in charge of the Shangshu Ling's affairs. However, the position of Shangshu Ling had always been vacant, and no one wanted to touch the suspicion.

Therefore, if in the future it becomes inconvenient to use the positions of Taiwei and Sikong and only Situ is used, then the Three Dukes will not be constituted. In fact, a new official system must be set up.

Considering this, Liu Bei decided not to make any more trouble for the time being and let Zhuge brothers continue to serve as Minister of the Interior and Minister of the Chancellery, actually holding all administrative power. After two years when he was firmly established as the emperor and Cao Cao was completely destroyed, he could slowly carry out reforms.

For now, just confer the title of marquis and fiefdom to Zhuge brothers and others and appease them.

On the civil service side, the people at the top cannot be transferred, so naturally the officials below can only make minor adjustments.

Lu Su was promoted to Shizhong, Pang Tong to Taifu, Gu Yong to Dahonglu, Liu Ba to Da Si Nong, Fa Zheng to Tingwei...the rest are too numerous to mention.

In comparison, it is much more convenient for military generals.

Liu Bei directly appointed Guan Yu as General of Cavalry, Zhang Fei as General of Chariots and Cavalry, and Zhao Yun as General of Guards.

Mi Zhu was appointed as the left general, Taishi Ci as the right general, and Gan Ning as the rear general.
Ma Chao, Huang Zhong, Zhang Liao and Gao Shun were the four generals, and the rest were demoted in rank.

After the promotion and reward, Liu Bei announced a three-day banquet for all the ministers. At the same time, he also announced that the people of Sili would be exempted from taxes for the next two years to ensure that the people would rest and recover from the trauma caused by the war.

In the last two months of the 18th year of Jian'an, Liu Bei had no plans to do anything else, and everything focused on a stable transition.

However, the news that the emperor was going to conduct a special examination to recruit officials was released immediately. Liu Bei issued an edict to all counties, asking them to submit the list of candidates for this year's selection as soon as possible before the end of the year, and to notify those selected that they must rush to Luoyang before the first day of March next year to participate in the re-examination.

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PS: I will be going out tomorrow and will take a day off. I will finish the book soon. I will not write too much about the subsequent battles.

(End of this chapter)