The title of the country was established, and Zhang Chong was ready to reward him based on his merits.
He made Duman the left prime minister of the Taiping Kingdom, and He Kuitai the right prime minister of the Taiping Kingdom. Sacrificial Sun was appointed as the left envoy of the Privy Council, and Yang Mao was appointed as the right envoy of the Privy Council.
He was promoted to Marshal of the Five Generals, Guan Yu was promoted to Marshal of the Left Army, and the Marshal's Palace of the Left Army was established; Zhang Dan was promoted to Marshal of the Right Army, and the Marshal's Palace of the Right Army was established; Ding Sheng was promoted to Marshal of the Front Army, and the Marshal's Palace of the Front Army was established; he was promoted to Jin. He was appointed as the Marshal of the Chinese Army and established the Marshal's Mansion of the Chinese Army. He also promoted Dong Fang to the rank of marshal of the rear army and established the marshal's office of the rear army.
Cai Yong was appointed as the Tongquetai cabinet minister, Zhuge Gui was appointed as the magistrate of Yecheng, Wu Guan and Shan Ming were appointed as the left and right directors of the Xiansi Department, Tao An was appointed as Taixuezheng, and Zhao Da and Guo Tu were appointed as the punishment supervisors. Yan Zhuang and Gao Sheng are the left and right directors of the Transportation Department. Fan Chang and Ren Jun were appointed as the left and right directors of the Yingtian Department.
Xun You, Ruan Yu, Lu Cui, Shen Shang, Feng Fang, Li Heng, Li Rong, Feng Xi, Huang Quan, Guo Tao, Wu Rui, Zhang Yun and others were appointed as Lang Guan.
He also set up the general military department in front of the account, with Cai Que and Guo Zu as the left and right captains, and in charge of the five divisions of troops: Tieqiang, Tieqi, Tiejia, Fengzhen and Tielin. He also promoted Li Damu and Dian Wei to the left and right generals of the Hengli Army, and followed them under the guard.
As for Meng Ju, Dong Zhao and others, their original positions remained the same, but their ranks were upgraded one level.
In addition, Zhang Chong also ordered the Engineering Department to withdraw a batch of money from the treasury, and ordered it to melt and cast new copper coins, named "Taiwu Tongbao", and melted ten thousand catties of gold to cast gold coins, named "Establishing the Taiping Kingdom", and distributed them all to All officers and men in the whole army.
In this way, a relatively well-organized Taiping Kingdom named "Tai", including administration, justice, and military, was established in Hebei.
The first thing Zhang Chong did after proclaiming himself queen was to declare Guan Yu as the marshal of Tailu's camp, envoy Yue, and lead the marshal's troops of ten thousand people from the left army southward, stationed at Fenggao.
Obviously, after repeated consideration, Zhang Chong still believed that the current Guan Yu was the only commander qualified to face the complex situation in the Lutai region.
Afterwards, Zhang Chong brought Guan Yu into the palace, told him all the information about the Lutai area, and also told Guan Yu about his risks to the subsequent situation.
As expected, Guan Yu did not disappoint Zhang Chong. He clasped his fists and accepted the order without any fear on his face.
In this way, on the third day after the founding of the Taiping Kingdom, Guan Yu led 10,000 elite infantrymen, two battalions of assault cavalry, 2,000 cavalry, and 4,000 heavy troops. Start from Yecheng and go southeast along the official road.
Afterwards, they will pass through the Baima Ferry, pass through the Heji base area, pass through the Zhongping Kingdom base area in central Yanzhou, and finally station in Fenggao.
And over there, after the Taiping Kingdom was established in Yedu, the situation in the world has indeed undergone tremendous changes.
The first one is that after the Han Dynasty experienced two major political turmoils, its prestige was greatly reduced. In response to the strife from the upper class, the governors from various places sat back and watched to protect themselves, so the strength of the two capitals weakened again.
Regarding these, Liu Hong from Chang'an, Kansai, did not take any measures, but went for more unscrupulous enjoyment and banquets. Perhaps knowing that there was no hope of regaining Luoyang, but unexpectedly being defeated by the rebels from Guandong, Liu Hong began to let himself go.
He used all the tricks he played in Luoyang in Chang'an.
First, the water from Qujiang River was diverted to make Tianchi, and then a huge boat was built on top of Tianchi. In the boat, there were hundreds of charming palace maids, wearing necklaces and holding musical instruments. Liu Hong also selected sixteen most beautiful women to teach the emperor how to dance. Then he spent the whole day feasting and having fun in Tianchi, ignoring foreign affairs and going to court early in the morning.
At that time, Fu Xie, the captain of Jinwu, urged Liu Hong to focus on state affairs, saying that the world was in chaos and the Han Dynasty was in decline. If Liu Hong didn't cheer up and restore the ancestral foundation, how could he have the face to meet Emperor Gaozu and Emperor Taizong in the future.
Liu Hong knew that Fu Xie was loyal and loyal, but he was really annoyed by this man's nagging. In a fit of anger, he sent Fu Xie to Hanyang, Liangzhou, to fight against the Qiang people.
Fu Xie didn't want to go, but the envoy wouldn't even let him go home, so he sent him west with his carriage and horses. In the end, he could only bow his head to the Weiyang Palace where Liu Hong was.
As Fu Xie left, undercurrents surged in the Guanxi court, and everyone was thinking about their own way out. Liu Hong obviously could no longer bear the trust of the Kansai nobles.
The Kansai side has lost its spirit, while the Kanto side is not much better. Their finances were also about to collapse.
Because of the Jiazi Rebellion, the Yuan family was massacred. There is less and less money, food and materials being transferred to Luoyang from various places in Guandong.
Many prefects in Guandong were either disciples of the Yuan family or were entrusted by Qi Enyin, so the Yuan family served as a bridge between the central and local governments at the imperial court.
But now that the Yuan family has been destroyed, and even killed in Chongde Hall, these eunuchs feel sad for their death. Even most people are still thinking that the Han Dynasty looks like it is not far away from death. If this is the case, who will not conserve their strength?
It's a bit difficult to be called a loner, but it's not unthinkable to be a prince.
As a result, the prefects in various places seized the scheme on the pretext that Yellow Turban thieves were everywhere and the roads were cut off. In fact, it was used to recruit troops.
The localities and the central government are becoming more and more alienated.
But what the governors of Guandong did, it would be difficult for the ministers of Luoyang.
More than half of the Han Dynasty's annual money and food came from the Kanto region. Twenty-three out of ten came from Qingxu, three-four out of ten came from Yanyu, one-two out of ten came from Jingzhou, one-two out of ten came from the hinterland of the capital, and the rest came from Yizhou.
But now Qingzhou has fallen, Yanzhou is broken, Yuzhou and Jingzhou are unstable, and only Xuzhou is left, which is still transporting money and grain. But how can we support the tens of thousands of troops in Guandong?
In fact, as early as Yuan Wei's time, in order to increase Luoyang's reserves and savings, he planted crops in the Gyeonggi area. However, the effect of this move was minimal, because the area was full of land and estates owned by powerful nobles and nobles, and there was really no extra population or land for farming.
Because Yuan Wei wanted to gain the support of the gentry in the capital, he never took action against these wealthy families, so Luoyang's money and food were running low.
Finally, on May 30, the first year of Taiwu, a plague caused by a great famine swept through the sacred city of Luoyang.
The plague first broke out from Luzuo, Kyoto.
There were so many people starving to death in this civilian area that the plague became widespread. Although the poor were the first to die, the plague soon spread to Youcheng, and more and more wealthy families died suddenly.
For a time, the city of Luoyang looked like a ghost, and people were in panic.
More and more ministers began to flee Luoyang and seek refuge in the Guandong region. To make matters worse, due to the chaos last year and the disrepair of water conservancy in Yuzhou, severe locust plagues broke out in May this year.
For a time, locusts flew and covered the sky, making it impossible for people and horses to move. The ditches and ravines they fell into were all flat, and the people were severely hungry.
In this way, the ministers who wanted to flee to Guandong saw white bones and weeds all over the ground along the way. These ministers, who had tasted all the wealth and honor in the world, realized how miserable the world was. For a while, their clothes were filled with tears, and they couldn't bear to see it.
Under this situation, Prime Minister Xu came forward and asked the young emperor Liu Bian to issue an edict to punish himself, trying to win people's hearts.
After the Sinji Edict, the largest court meeting since the Jiazi Rebellion began, presided over by Xu Xiang, He Jin, and Huangfu Song.
At this moment, the Chongde Hall has lost the blood of Yuan family and his disciples. All the ministers gathered here and only discussed one topic, that is, should the capital be moved for refuge? If we move, where should we move?
The matter of moving the capital is really unacceptable. If it is not possible, who would want to stay away from the tombs of their ancestors?
In fact, this is not the first time that related topics have been discussed. When Dong Zhuo completely turned to Guanxi, someone in the Luoyang court mentioned moving the capital, because it was too close to Luoyang from the east of the river. With the speed of the Guanxi Army's cavalry, Luoyang could be surrounded in less than two days. But this time, due to the epidemic and lack of food, the court once again proposed to move the capital.
But even so, when the discussion about whether to move the capital was revealed, the court officials were still in an uproar.
All officials who are qualified to speak out express their opinions.
The ministers in the Gyeonggi area, especially the Zheng family, firmly advocated that the capital should not be moved.
Zheng Tai, who had already become a minister, spoke righteously in court:
"Those who moved the capital to avoid chaos have not perished. Although they have not perished immediately, there have not been those who have been able to revive."
Guo Xiu, Zhong Fu, Wei Kang, Zhang Chong and other officials all came out to reconsider. They are all locals of Luoyang, and they firmly disagree with the imperial court moving the capital at this time, both emotionally and in terms of interests.
And Liu Bei, who had just made huge gains in the Jiazi Rebellion, even advised him in the tone of a relative of the Liu clan:
"The mausoleums of our ancestors, the ancestral temples, the ancestral temples, and the residences of hundreds of people are all in Kyoto. How can we abandon them?"
For example, Huangfu Song even advised the young emperor and Prime Minister Xu behind him from a military perspective:
"Now the struggle between the two capitals is at a critical stage. Once we give up Luoyang, it is almost equivalent to giving up the capital and a large area of Kansai. It can be said that the two capitals will no longer exist."
Huangfu Song was very anxious because he knew that the Guandong court was now at a critical juncture in history.
Because he has very reliable information, today's Kansai is worse than them. Now Liu Hong is no longer in charge of government, and all political power has fallen into the hands of the eunuchs. Under the pressure of the eunuchs, many loyal officials were demoted to Xizhou.
So now many old friends in the west have contacted Huangfu Song again, and it is obvious that there will be big changes.
Moreover, Huangfu Song had long recognized that time was on their side. Because although Liu Hong took his son Liu Xie away with him, he was still too young. And once Liu Hong passed away, Liu Xie was not old enough to control the court.
At that time, the conflict between the eunuchs and the wealthy Kansai families will quickly amplify, and that time will be their opportunity in Kanto.
But the premise of all this is that you can't move the capital. If you move the capital, wouldn't it mean giving Luoyang to others?
But no matter how right Huangfu Song was, he still didn't understand what Xu Xiang and others were thinking.
Why did Xu Xiang push for the imperial court to move the capital? Because he has seen that if he continues to stay in Luoyang, it will be a dead city. In terms of war potential, the Luoyang Basin cannot be compared with the Guanzhong Plain.
The real opportunity is in the Central Plains. As long as the imperial court moves its capital to the Central Plains, it can rely on the imperial court's remaining authority and tens of thousands of elite soldiers to resume its rule in the Central Plains region.
Therefore, Prime Minister Xu will be a strong man who will cut off his arms and return to the Central Plains area to strengthen his foundation and cultivate his power to control the four directions.
Xiang Xu is a very far-sighted politician. He deeply understood that Chaoting was no longer the powerful man he was.
Luoyang is good. The so-called eight passes are the key. It is among the best in the world and has the advantage of Heluo. It leans against Mang Mountain in the north and Jingbiao in the south. It's like sitting in a palace and looking down at the courtyard. But these are all for the great Han Dynasty, not for the small imperial court that is now surviving and divided.
The original advantages of Luoyang were all disadvantages for the Han Dynasty at this time.
Take the north as an example. Once Dong Zhuo from Hedong boldly moves south, the defenses of the river will be completely unable to stop these Bingzhou cavalry. Now Dong Zhuo just doesn't want Luoyang to fall so quickly. It's not in his interest, so he has stopped the army in Dahe.
But this kind of useless defense puts their own safety at the enemy's sword, which is unacceptable to both Xiang Xu and Liu Bian.
And more importantly, Huangfu Song has said so much, can you produce grain?
Luoyang's reserves have always relied on water transportation from the Central Plains. This type of water transportation would have a high loss in normal times, and only the authority of the Han Dynasty could maintain this loss and allow grain from various places to be transported to Beijing. But what now?
After two years of war in the world, Dingkou was dispersed, production was cut off, and merchant travel was extinct. Even the strong men who were originally responsible for water transportation have been drafted into the army by various counties and counties. How can we still transport grain?
In the end, Huangfu Song and Xu Pang had a quarrel in court, and no one could convince the other. Later, several powerful people from the capital, including Zheng, Zhang, Wei, and Zhong, agreed to lend 200,000 shi of grain to the court, and the chaos was stopped.
In addition, the young emperor Liu Bian has lived in Luoyang since he was a child, and he is unwilling to leave from the bottom of his heart. Not to mention that he was also worried about being scolded by his clan members for abandoning the tombs of his ancestors.
So after seeing that the food crisis had been temporarily resolved, Liu Bian decided not to move the capital.
But this capital relocation incident made the officials and workers of the Manchu Dynasty feel thorny in their hearts. They all had this thought in their hearts:
"Have I reached this point as a big man?"
However, no matter what kind of turmoil swept Luoyang, the great epidemic in June of the first year of Taiwu finally caused civil unrest in the Central Plains.
More and more Guizhou leaders who could no longer survive began to unite to attack the local tyrants from various places. There were various rebel armies with various names.
In this regard, Luoyang was completely helpless. The Han Dynasty could only ask the local powerful families from all over the country to suppress the civil unrest.
There is an edict:
"Whenever a young man comes out of the army, a hundred people will be awarded the title of general, five hundred people will be awarded the title of captain, and five thousand people will be awarded the title of lieutenant general."
For a time, there were many powerful men in the Central Plains. They were either called captains or generals, and there were so many people who were captains or generals. Some of these people directly established their own kingdoms based on counties. For example, Su Dai, a Wu man, supported five thousand troops and became the governor of Changsha. Bei Yu was the chief of Huarong, and each ruled the roost based on the militia.
It was also when the situation suddenly accelerated that Zhang Chong summoned civil and military officials to discuss the next stage of expansion.
Now Zhang Chong has handed over all the Lutai area to Guan Yu, and then reserved more energy to deal with Hebei affairs.
With the sudden decline of the behemoth Guandong Court, Zhang Chong predicted that the probability of a subsequent joint strangulation of the Hebei Taishan Army was low. Without strong central regulation, powerful powers from all over the country cannot unite.
It was also based on this judgment that Zhang Chong believed that now was the time to take over all the lands in Hebei.
Some staff members believed that it would be better to take advantage of the chaos in the Central Plains and the heroes to rise south, pass Xingyang and go straight to Luoyang.
But Xun You put forward a different view for Zhang Chong. He believes that the Central Plains is now a muddy land, seemingly chaotic but complicated. Moreover, the Central Plains region is the region where the tycoons have the strongest strength. It is better to take advantage of the civil strife and mutual depletion of strength to jointly carry out the Northern Expedition.
Youji's soldiers and horses are strong and have been defeated by Taishan's army. It is time to take them all. And once you support Youji, you can leave Taihang and enter Bingzhou, and then control the two capitals, and the world can be settled.
Zhang Chong accepted his strategy and decided to make another northern expedition.
The next volume will focus on Youji and look at Heshuo. Families, support us with your monthly votes.