Three Kingdoms: I am not Liu Bian

Chapter 32 Otherwise, there is no way to reward your loyalty!

The next day, perhaps because of the oath made by the prince last night, as well as the promise to retire after success, Jia Xu's steps seemed lighter than before.

In fact, there was another reason for handing the embroidered robe envoy over to Jia Xu, and that was to act in secrecy.

Secret service agencies have always been criticized by scholars no matter which feudal dynasty they are in. Who wants a knife hanging over their head all day long? Those with dirty tricks worry about being investigated, and those with clean tricks worry about being framed. But how many people in the world have clean tricks?
The current Embroidered Uniform Envoys were abolished on the surface, and Jia Xu recruited the old Embroidered Uniform Envoys from the treasury of the Prince's Mansion. Even among the officials of the Prince's Mansion, only Jia Xu knew about it.

However, the matter of the Embroidered Robe Envoy's reconstruction will be made public sooner or later.

Liu Bian was anxious to rebuild the Embroidered Robe Envoys, firstly to monitor officials and combat serious corruption, and secondly to monitor the local areas and investigate the Taiping Dao rebels.

"The people could not bear their lot and rose up as bandits. The Guandong region was in turmoil and the roads were blocked. The envoys in embroidered robes pointed directly at them, axes in hand, and rushed out in unison."

If there had been no embroidered robe envoys, even Emperor Wu of Han would have found it difficult to quell the rebellion of local bandits.

Of course, Liu Bian did not expect the Embroidered Uniform Envoy to nip the Taiping Dao rebellion in the bud for him, but he wanted to find out which local officials were connected with the Taiping Dao rebels.

Therefore, in order to deal with the Taiping Dao Rebellion in advance, Liu Bian had to make many arrangements.

It was impossible for the local county governors to carry out large-scale mobilization, otherwise it would certainly alarm Zhang Jue and force him to rebel in advance.

Then the only option is to arrange new governors for each state in the name of supervising disaster relief matters.

Historically, the Yellow Turban Rebellion in Xuzhou was relatively weak, so Liu Bian appointed Cai Yong as the governor of Xuzhou and gave him the power of fake envoys. This allowed the governor, who had no power to participate in military affairs, to gain the power to take over military power at critical moments through fake envoys.

Although there was no difference in power between the two types of officials during this period, Lu Zhi, as the Governor of Jizhou and the official in charge of the imperial guards, still held much greater power than Cai Yong. Liu Bian simply told his teacher that anyone below the rank of 2,000 stone could be executed, and he would not inquire about the reasons for their crimes.

In other words, even without any pretext for a crime, Lu Zhi could directly execute officials below the rank of 2,000 stones.

However, if Cai Yong wanted to execute officials below the rank of 2,000 stones, he had to have a crime that was punishable by death according to the Han Law, and only then could he execute them first and report to the emperor later.

But these two are far from enough.

Apart from Jizhou, the three places where the Taiping Dao was most disturbed were Yuzhou, Yanzhou and Qingzhou. He had to select three capable governors for these three states. Not only did they have to be capable, but they also had to be upright enough to keep a close eye on local corruption and prevent those insects from tampering with the relief grain.

Liu Bian placed a piece of silk on the table, with the words "Governor of Yuzhou, Governor of Yanzhou, Governor of Qingzhou and Governor of Jingzhou" written on it, but the name after the governor was blank.

He has no one available.

Even though his Eastern Palace already includes a number of founding-nation talents, age and qualifications are irreparable shortcomings. He cannot let a man in his twenties who has never even held a Thousand Stone official position to serve as a real Two Thousand Stone provincial governor. Even if Zhong Yao is barely over thirty, he would not be willing to tarnish his reputation by jumping up the rank to serve as a provincial governor.

He could only select officials who were qualified for promotion or did not mind skipping levels for promotion from officials outside the Prince's Mansion, and who had good abilities and dared to supervise local corruption to serve as provincial governors, but such people were really rare.

Those who are good at martial arts are not good at literature, those who are good at literature are not good at martial arts, and those who are good at both martial arts and literature are not upright enough.

It wasn't so bad that he wasn't good at investigating corruption or governing the local areas; he could have relied on talents like Zhang Zhao and Zhong Yao to assist him. Military generals were often willing to leave matters of governing the people, which they weren't good at, to scholars, as this would allow them to accumulate a record of a rank of Qianshi (a high official) and also serve as Liu Bian's eyes and ears.

However, since civil officials were not good at martial arts, few of them were willing to entrust the military power in their hands to the military generals under their command.

What gave him a headache was people who were both civil and martial but not upright enough, but he really lacked people available.

"That's all, Awang. Summon the Imperial Guards Yuan Pang, Imperial Censor Wang Yun, and Imperial Counselor Zhu Jun to the palace!"

After thinking for a long time, Liu Bian was unable to make a decision, so he simply summoned these people directly and asked them questions in person before making a decision.

These people were already in the court, and whether they were the Grand Counselor, the Imperial Censor or the Praetorian Guard, they were actually sinecures and came very quickly.

"Your Highness, I pay you my respects!"

Liu Bian looked at the three people in front of him and nodded secretly.

Whether it was Yuan Pang, Wang Yun or Zhu Jun, all three left a good impression on Liu Bian in terms of appearance.

Yuan Pang, a scholar, also gave off the impression of a Confucian general when he donned the military robes. Wang Yun, though a scholar, was also physically strong, and Zhu Jun was majestic and imposing. "Please first review these silk scrolls."

Liu Bian did not waste any more words talking to them about the Taiping Dao. Instead, he placed the information about the Taiping Dao collected by the embroidered envoy in front of them and observed the changes in their expressions.

After all, Yuan Pang had seen the world. Not only had he served as Si Tu, one of the Three Dukes, he had also quelled the Qiang Rebellion in the northwest. His expression only changed slightly before he regained his composure.

Wang Yun's face showed anger, and he subconsciously put his hand on the sword at his waist. Then he realized that the sword had been surrendered when he entered the palace, and his face was embarrassed.

When Zhu Jun first saw this information, he looked surprised, but then he showed a hint of joy, and then his expression became solemn.

It is normal for the three of them to have different expressions and different ideas.

Yuan Pang, with his foresight, understood that the Taiping Dao Rebellion, though seemingly terrifying, was actually easy to quell. While Wang Yun appeared to be a loyal and upright man, Zhu Jun displayed the mentality of a traditional military commander.

He was surprised when he first heard about the rebellion, then he was happy because he had the opportunity to make a contribution, and finally he felt it was difficult to analyze the enemy and our own military strength.

"Principal Guards, are we still able to fight?"

Liu Bian looked at Yuan Pang. This man was not young at all, fifty-five years old. He wondered if he had the strength to support such a heavy burden.

"Your Highness, if you have any orders, I will not disgrace them!"

Yuan Pang had a loud voice and sounded full of energy, which was one of the reasons why Liu Bian wanted to employ him.

In this era of short life expectancy, anyone over 30 can call himself an "old man", but Yuan Pang, who is 55 years old this year, is particularly stubborn and never calls himself an "old minister".

But his body was indeed in good condition. Otherwise, if his body really could not withstand the fatigue of fighting, he would never accept Liu Bian's appointment.

"I would like to appoint you as the Governor of Yanzhou, General of the Left, with the authority of the Imperial Guards. You can execute anyone below the rank of 2,000 stone first and report to me later. I hope you will stay in Yanzhou for me!"

Just as Liu Bian was waiting for Yuan Pang to accept the order, he unexpectedly saw Yuan Pang frowning.

"Your Highness, Cai Bojie has been appointed Governor of Xuzhou. I am Cai Bojie's uncle. Please be cautious!"

Wang Yun couldn't help but show admiration for Yuan Pang on his face. Such a selfless person is really rare in the world.

Zhu Jun, on the other hand, felt that Yuan Pang was too rigid. Before the prince appointed you as the governor of Yanzhou, he naturally knew about your uncle-nephew relationship with Cai Yong, and he naturally trusted you. Why would you refuse such a promising task?
However, Liu Bian was stunned. He really didn't know that Yuan Pang was Cai Yong's uncle. The two of them didn't seem to be much older than each other, right?
In fact, although Yuan Pang was only five years older than Cai Yong, he was Cai Yong's real uncle. Yuan Pang asked Liu Bian to think twice before arranging for them to serve as provincial governors at the real two thousand stone level at the same time.

"Has the imperial court ever had any law prohibiting nephews and uncles from serving as provincial governors at the same time?"

Liu Bian didn't care about this at all. Yuan Pang was a truly loyal and upright person. Not only did he not favor any side, but more importantly, he would not sacrifice public interests for personal gain.

On the contrary, Cai Yong was far inferior to Yuan Pang in this regard. In the past, he even held a grudge against the Chief Architect Yang Qiu because he repeatedly refused the private requests of his uncle, the Imperial Guard Cai Zhi.

The more Liu Bian looked at this old minister, the more he liked him: "You are so loyal and upright. If the court were all ministers like Yuan Gong, why would I worry about the Taiping Dao?"

"Wenhe, take fifty pieces of top-quality Xiangyi brocade and present them to Lord Yuan!" Liu Bian left his seat and approached Yuan Pang, shaking his hand tightly. Seeing Yuan Pang frown as if to refuse, he said, "There is no other way to reward your loyalty and integrity."

"Hasn't Mr. Yuan heard of the story of Zigong redeeming a man?"

Upon hearing this, Yuan Pang was willing to accept the prince's reward and bowed to express his gratitude.

Looking at Yuan Pang, who was so loyal and talented in both civil and military affairs, Liu Bian thought to himself that it was a pity.

According to the "Three Mutual Laws" promulgated during the reign of Emperor Xiaohuan, the governor of a state cannot be a native of the state. Otherwise, Liu Bian really wanted to hand over Yuzhou, the place where the Taiping Dao was the strongest besides Jizhou, to Yuan Pang.

He even felt a sense of regret for this old minister who had wasted most of his life on his own tyrant monarch, as if he was not born yet.

(End of this chapter)