Chapter 888

Matters of religion and faith naturally require attention. Zhang Lu had been indoctrinating the people of Hanzhong quite effectively; if not for the favorable conditions promised by General Wang, the people of Hanzhong would truly have remained steadfast in their belief in the Five Pecks of Rice. This was certainly unacceptable and had to be suppressed.

Given this situation, and since it was impossible to arrange for Zhang Lu to continue operating in Hanzhong, it was decided to simply give them Mount Hua and let them develop it themselves. After all, the famous mountains and great rivers of the present day were not yet much to speak of and had not undergone any major development. If the Zhang family wanted to manage Mount Hua, relying on their own strength, it would take them at least eighty or a hundred years to build it up.

Now is also the time of Buddhism's eastward transmission, but there are not many believers, and it has not yet made a great name for itself. It will only gain momentum after the followers of Buddhism combine it with reality and localize it.

Regarding this point, Wang Yan had been paying attention for a long time. After all, if a religion develops too powerfully, it becomes a matter that affects politics and shakes the foundations of rule; this is naturally bad and must be subject to appropriate restraint and supervision.

As for what future generations will be like, Wang Yan cannot control that, and he is not even sure if he will have descendants. In any case, as long as he is here for a day, there will be no chaos, and the system will be sound and healthy. The problems of future generations are, in all likelihood, problems of people; this is certain, for after all, systems are implemented by people. If the people are no good, even the best system is a waste.

Meeting Zhang Lu was just something General Wang did when he was idle and curious, so he called him over to take a look. If not for this, Guo Jia would have resolved the matter over there, and there would have been no need for Zhang Lu to make this trip in fear and trembling.

The Hanzhong region has now been incorporated into General Wang's rule, with Guo Jia stationed there, currently promoting policies and organizing production and construction.

To say that Zhang Lu governed Hanzhong very well would not be realistic. But Hanzhong was indeed relatively stable, and at this time, it could be considered a place where people lived and worked in peace. The original Hanzhong was the only place where the population continued to grow during the decades of war in the Great Han, and its population was greater than that of Guanzhong, Liangzhou, or Bingzhou at the time. Of course, this figure counts the Han people, not the barbarians.

As long as there is stability, the population will certainly grow, but the situation in Hanzhong is actually very complex. Because ever since the Huang Jin Rebellion began, people from Guanzhong had been fleeing to Hanzhong intermittently, and later, when there was a great drought and famine in Guanzhong followed by warlord infighting, even more people went to Hanzhong. Therefore, the population growth in Hanzhong still owes a part of the reason to this aspect.

However, no matter how much it grows, the small basin of Hanzhong is only so big, and on top of that, the current medical conditions are insufficient; Zhang Lu even made the sick people reflect on themselves, claiming that if their illness did not heal, it was because they had committed sins.

Currently, Hanzhong has seventy Battalion Commander and a population of three hundred thousand. For Wang Yan today, this population is not a burden at all. After all, a year has already passed, and the newly acquired Henan has already harvested a crop, which has greatly alleviated the tense food situation. Therefore, the three hundred thousand newly added people in Hanzhong, compared to the base of eighteen million people overall, really do not count for much.

On the contrary, the situation with Liu Bei is slightly more troublesome, because Liu Bei is more powerful, and he has a population of 1.7 million under his rule. These are the Xuzhou people that Liu Bei previously relocated, as well as the local people of Yangzhou.

On the basis of already bearing the burden of three hundred thousand new people, bearing the burden of these 1.7 million people as well, even with Wang Yan's deep family resources, is still a bit stretched.

The main reason lies in the previous accumulation, which has already been fully invested in Henan. Even though Henan has had a harvest, that matches the current population. Moreover, Luoyang is currently undergoing massive construction, the entire territory of Henan is extensively carrying out public facility construction, and the construction in Liangzhou, the grasslands, and Bingzhou has never stopped either. Even the Liaodong region, where Wang Yan has managed for the longest time and which is relatively the most perfect, has never stopped construction either.

And all of these are massive expenditures. 1.7 million people is indeed a bit of pressure. But the problem is not very big either; after all, when it comes down to it, before General Wang went there, they were under Liu Bei, and although they did not live well, they still survived, so waiting a year or two is nothing.

In fact, as long as the system on General Wang's side is implemented, after two years pass, their lives will naturally be much better than they are now. As the central government, what Wang Yan does is regulation. A happy life, after all, must be created by oneself.

Moreover, the situation under Liu Bei's rule is actually better than in Henan, because his population structure has not been destroyed, unlike Henan, which had hundreds of thousands of young and strong people abducted by Old Cao. With the young and strong, production and construction can be carried out in an orderly manner, and it is only a matter of time before things get better.

Saying so much, the central idea is actually just one: Liu Bei has surrendered.

For as long as Wang Yan has been starting his enterprise, Liu Bei has been struggling for his ideal of restoring the Han Dynasty. Watching Wang Yan step by step, steady and solid, not only fighting all the way to the north of the Yangtze River but also completely wiping out the barbarians, whether they were the powerful clans and wealthy households of the Han family or the leaders and chieftains of the barbarians, he killed them all cleanly.

And what about himself? He performed meritorious service in the Huang Jin Rebellion, but for several years he was not settled, and after finally being arranged as a County Magistrate, he was humiliated by the Inspector. He fled to Liaodong for a year, and then followed Gongsun Zan south to crusade against Dong, sitting like a lackey; fortunately, his three brothers had martial prowess, and the crusade against Dong established the reputation of Liu, Guan, and Zhang. Afterward, he attached himself to Xuzhou and obtained Xuzhou from Tao Qian.

Then, because of Cao Cao and Yuan Shao, and more importantly because of Wang Yan's southward movement, he had to relocate the people to the south of the Yangtze River. He fought against Sun Ce in the south, captured Wu Commandery, later allied with Cao Cao to attack Yuan Shu, and then he challenged Yuan Shu one-on-one, suppressing Yuan Shu in battle.

By now, Cao Cao has moved south, Yuan Shu has surrendered to Cao, Sun Ce has attacked Jiaozhi in the south, and at the same time, Cao Cao has issued imperial edicts openly while allying secretly, pressuring from both inside and outside; Liu Biao and Liu Zhang are both unable to accomplish great things, and his own rule has also had some instability. At this time, Wang Yan extended an olive branch to him.

Today, the situation in the world is clear: it is a war between Cao Cao and Wang Yan. Whoever wins will contend for the world. His ideal is already dead, and he can no longer accomplish anything. He is already forty-six years old, often feeling that his energy is insufficient, and the general trend is gone; struggling to survive is futile. Wang Yan has great ambitions and even more ability to govern the world; how could he not surrender?

Although he claims to be a relative of the Han imperial family and previously struggled to restore the Han Dynasty, Cao Cao's use of the Han Dynasty's righteousness could not bind him. Because although he did benefit a little, the reason he built his power was not because of the Han Dynasty. Liu Biao and Liu Zhang are different; they were both given power by the Han Dynasty previously, although Liu Zhang inherited Liu Yan's power.

Furthermore, Liu Bei had long understood that the Han Dynasty existed in name only. And he still hasn't figured out until now what he could accomplish even if he were allowed to revive the Han Dynasty for the third time. It would just be like the Former Han; whether it would have the prosperity and strength of the reigns of Emperors Wen, Jing, and Wu is debatable.

After all, even now, he can only raise an army of one hundred thousand by conscripting the strong, and he does not have the courage like Wang Yan to judge, slaughter, and torture groups such as powerful clans, wealthy households, landlords, and wandering knights.

To talk about ruthlessness, it still has to be General Wang. The stability, harmony, and prosperity under General Wang's rule today were all carved out by killing; he killed the powerful clans and also raised the backbone of the people.

It is precisely because he understood all these things that, after receiving Wang Yan's personal letter, he immediately summoned his civil and military subordinates, and after a period of study, successfully reached a consensus to surrender to Wang Yan.

Immediately following this was the transmission of the letter, and after that, Wang Yan dispatched four warships, transporting a pile of supplies, and at the same time mobilized troops, sending Taishi Ci, Zhang He, Gao Lan, and Zhou Cang to lead four guards of troops across the Yangtze River to the south, and also dispatched civil officials with a pile of officials across the river. Under Liu Bei's cooperation, they took over everything under Liu Bei's rule, acting according to General Wang's rules. For a time, it was chaotic, and the powerful clans began to run away while cursing.

Now Wang Yan is not short of grassroots officials, because after eighteen years, although there are not many high-quality talents, many people who can write and calculate have been cultivated. No one is born to be an official; after doing the work for a long time, one can become competent.

The only problematic point is that there are more people from the Northeast, followed by Youzhou, and then Jizhou, which is directly proportional to the time he has ruled each place. It is conceivable that in the future, among the middle-level officials, the officials from the Northeast will also be the most powerful force.

However, these are all small problems in development; talents from other places will also emerge later, and on top of that, the officials from the Northeast are courting death themselves, and little by little, things will return to the right track. Wang Yan is very familiar with this set of operations.

This is also an unavoidable matter; it is the same principle as the founding emperors of all dynasties using people from their hometowns. When he started his enterprise, he swept up the people of Youzhou and ran to Liaodong to settle down, and later he integrated the Wuhuan people, using them to fill the gaps when talents were lacking. And as he developed and grew, they also rose higher and higher, and naturally, uniting people from one place became a political force.

The establishment of a force is naturally for the purpose of seeking common interests; whether they intend to or not, they will expand their influence, which is all normal; just kill a few batches and it will be fine.

The powerful clans under Liu Bei's rule had long known the rumors, and they did not expect that before they could kidnap Liu Bei and surrender to Cao Cao, this damn Liu Da'er had already surrendered to Wang Yan, and very quickly sent troops over to hand over power, wanting to wipe them out.

It was really too unprincipled; it was in vain that they had previously supported Liu Da'er so wholeheartedly. But they had no choice; Wang Yan's methods were truly cruel and poisonous, and they were very afraid, so one by one, they all ran away to defect to Cao Cao while cursing.

And after handing over power and helping to stabilize the situation, Liu Bei took Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Mi Zhu, Sun Qian, Jian Yong, and others, packed up their family assets, took their families, and headed toward Luoyang in a grand procession.

By this time, it was already another spring.

Liu Bei and his party boarded warships even larger than the ones he had seen at Tuhe years ago, crossed the Yangtze River, disembarked at Guangling, and then headed northwest, crossing Yuzhou, straight to Luoyang.

No longer needing to toil day and night, Liu Bei emptied his mind, and his whole person felt relaxed, so he was not in a hurry to rush on his journey, just strolling along, unhurried, walking slowly and very calmly. From the beginning of spring plowing until the end of spring plowing, he finally arrived in Luoyang.

When the Huang Jin Rebellion began, he had brought his two good brothers to Yuzhou, and he was no stranger to this place. In fact, there were even places where he had fought battles back then.

But now, along the way, things were already different, and it was no longer the Yuzhou battlefield of his midnight dreams.

The villages seen along the way were all houses with blue stone bricks and tiles and transparent glass windows, with small paths winding through them, and the surroundings were all large stretches of farmland. On the fields, there were people working with smiles. There were no more people in rags; everyone was dressed decently. Even if there were those without clothes, it was because they were too hot from working and were bare-chested.

The people used the General's Plow, which has now been promoted throughout the world, to plow the land, and oxen, horses, and people were all pulling the plows. Unsurprisingly, he again saw the scene of the army helping with plowing; the plows they used were a row of more than ten plowshares connected together. The strong soldiers were bare-chested, shouting slogans, and the speed of plowing was very fast.

The soldiers were smiling, and the people were also smiling.

The small paths of the village connected to the wide main roads. However, perhaps because it was just built, it could be seen that the main roads were not well-maintained, with many materials and sand and stones piled up, and there were mud pits on the road from time to time. Sometimes it was easy to walk, sometimes it was not, which was very annoying.

Even so, on this road, one could see convoys transporting supplies, merchant caravans, and knights riding fast horses from time to time. From this, one could see how prosperous Yuzhou is now.

With the feeling of things being different and the sigh at General Wang's effective governance, Liu Bei and his party arrived in Luoyang.

Naturally, this was not Liu Bei's first time in Luoyang; he had been here when he traveled to study in his early years, and he had also been here during the crusade against Dong, and looking at the dilapidated city walls, he could not help but sigh with emotion.

However, he did not ask like Zhang Lu why the city walls of the imperial capital were not well-repaired, and he was even very certain that the city walls of the imperial palace inside must be the same.

He smiled and pointed to the stone arch bridge built over the moat, explaining General Wang's meaning to the people who did not understand.

This was a very straightforward act; after all, the moats were all drawbridges. But General Wang was very straightforward, directly dismantling the drawbridges and building wide stone arch bridges, with the city gates wide open, and a group of soldiers standing guard in neat uniforms, entering and exiting at will without interception.

The party entered the city, and at this time, the shock to them was even greater than in the winter when Zhang Lu came, because the weather was warming up, and there were more construction sites starting work here, and there were people everywhere...

After settling down at the post station, the next day, someone came to pick them up, riding horses through Zhu Que Street, heading toward the imperial palace located in the northwest corner.

The imperial palace is located in the highest terrain of the whole city and is also the tallest and most magnificent building in the city. In the city, as long as one stands a little higher, one can see the towering imperial palace in the distance. And on Zhu Que Street, one can always see it.

The current imperial palace cannot be said to be very majestic, because it is also full of construction sites everywhere.

In a great hall with the words "Great Virtue" written on it, Liu Bei saw General Wang sitting cross-legged in the upper position; he was still the same, in a loose, plain white undergarment, casually pinning his hair with a green jade hairpin.

Just like the days in his memory at Tuhe, more than ten years had passed, and the General had not changed.

"Xuande, have you been well?"

General Wang had a smile on the corner of his mouth, his voice gentle and casual, very much like the intimacy of old friends meeting again. He was not like Old Cao at all...

Liu Bei looked at Wang Yan with an exceptionally complex gaze, which finally turned into a light sigh, and he performed the kneeling kowtow ceremony: "Liu Bei, pays respects to General Tianwu."

His voice was quite vicissitudinous, "I have been well, thank you for your concern, General."

Behind him, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and others also followed him in performing the great ceremony, calling out General Tianwu. This was complete respect; from now on, they would all be working for General Wang.

Wang Yan smiled and patted the table in front of him: "Gentlemen, please rise, take your seats and speak."

Liu Bei and the others thanked him, walked to the side, took off their shoes, and knelt on the mats; there was one for each, and they were all sitting upright.

He tilted his head toward the people beside him, and his subordinates bowed and went out to arrange for the serving of dishes. Wang Yan smiled and said: "Xuande, Yunchang, Yide, all three of your brothers have white hair on your temples; you must have been toiling a lot."

Guan Yu and Zhang Fei both cupped their hands and smiled at Wang Yan, without mentioning the bitter tears of the past. As the two great generals, they had been fighting for so many years and had never had a stable time; the wear and tear was too great.

Liu Bei sighed endlessly: "The past is gone, no need to mention it. If I had known this earlier, why would my three brothers have to toil for more than ten years, resulting in the regrowth of fat on our thighs, white hair on our temples, old age approaching, and nothing accomplished."

"A great man does his best and leaves the rest to fate, with no regrets in life. If there had been no toil for more than ten years in the past, where would today's Liu Xuande come from?" Wang Yan said words of comfort.

Liu Bei's current state of mind is extremely complex; regret, loneliness, powerlessness, relaxation, all these are gathered in one body; Old Liu is very uncomfortable.

Since Liu Bei had already said that nothing had been accomplished, Wang Yan followed his words: "Xuande, what do you intend to do in the future?"

"I will follow the General's orders." Liu Bei did not hesitate at all, cupping his hands and saying so.

He knew very well that Wang Yan was not testing whether he had any ambitions or the like, because Wang Yan did not care; Lu Bu specialized in killing righteous men and rebelled again and again, yet Wang Yan could still reuse him. Furthermore, he had served as Wang Yan's chief secretary for half a year and had a considerable understanding of him.

Asking him this now was just purely to see what he wanted to do and then arrange a corresponding position for him. He could even be certain that it would definitely be a position of great importance.

In fact, this was indeed the case. How could General Wang care about so much? Seeing Liu Bei say this, he pondered for a moment and said: "Since that is the case, you shall be the Commandant of Justice."

This was a position of great importance; he was the chief of the central supreme judicial and trial institution, summarizing the number of prison cases in the whole country, and in charge of imperial prison and the revision of laws and decrees. If changed to two thousand years later, it would be about the combination of the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate; one can imagine how great the power is.

Liu Bei was stunned for a moment; he did not expect Wang Yan to be so generous, and immediately he felt heavy trust. He avoided the mat and bowed: "Thank you, General; I will certainly not fail the General's expectations."

"No need for such courtesy, sit down."

Wang Yan waved his hand and looked at Guan Yu and Zhang Fei again: "Yunchang, Yide, do you have any plans?"

The two brothers looked at each other and said in unison: "We will follow the General's orders."

"You two once followed Liao Hua to crusade against the grasslands in the west and are familiar with the rules of my army, so you will not start from being small soldiers. It has been a long time since new troops were built, and there are no vacancies for Captains. You two brothers will be Commandants first. When we go south to crusade against Cao, we will certainly expand the army, and at that time, I will promote you two to Captains."

"Thank you, General."

Guan and Zhang also avoided the mat and bowed; they had spent half their lives in the army and would not know how to do anything else if they were not fighting.

Wang Yan nodded with satisfaction and arranged the positions of Mi Zhu and others; these people all had ability, but they had never served as officials under his rule, so they were all assigned to be Pavilion Chiefs.

This is the rule; no matter how much ability one has, if one is unwilling to comply, then go farm, go do business; wanting to be an official is impossible. Even if Zhuge Liang comes out of the mountains, he must start from being a Pavilion Chief; no one should be special.

After making such arrangements, Wang Yan drank and ate happily with Liu Bei and the others, talking about the past and telling the truth; Liu Bei's startup team was all drunk...