The issue Liu Hong is thinking about now is that even if he ultimately wants to establish Liu Bian as the crown prince to ensure the legitimacy of his royal family, he must make his own decision.
He will never accept coercion, threats, or inducements, and he will never compromise on the issue of imperial power.
Power must be passed down in the hands of our old Liu family, and it is not your He family's turn to taint it.
In short, it's just one sentence.
If I don't give it to you, you can't rob it. You can only be a tool.
You can share the imperial power, but you can never control the imperial power, let alone hold the imperial power on your behalf.
What he faced back then could never happen again.
Therefore, the power of any clan must not be allowed to continue to grow.
Once the power of the He family becomes huge and its foundation is solid, it will inevitably become Liu Bian's support for ascending to the throne. By then, even if Liu Hong is not willing, I am afraid that Liu Hong will not decide the final result.
Liu Hong is likely to be like Liu Bang, and this situation is intolerable to Liu Hong.
He could tolerate a legitimate son he didn't like inheriting the throne, but he couldn't tolerate the real power being controlled by outsiders after his death.
When he ascended the throne, he finally regained power from his former relatives, so how could he watch his son follow his own path?
When he thought of this, Liu Hong couldn't sit still. He stood up and walked around the room with an anxious look on his face.
"If the He family really becomes more powerful, they will definitely find ways to make Bian the prince. In this case, once Bian becomes the prince, it will not be certain whether the surname in the world is Liu or He. This kind of thing will never be tolerated.
,Grandpa, we have to do something."
"What does Your Majesty want to do?"
"We must weaken the He family's military power and suppress the Yuan family. We must not let them succeed!"
Liu Hong's face was full of sternness: "It's too early for them to try to seize the power of the Han Dynasty from me! I have the final say on who will be the emperor, and the emperor must not be influenced by outsiders! Bian can be the emperor, but he
Must be a real emperor!"
Zhang Rang was secretly happy in his heart and said: "In this case, the best way is to establish a new army under the control of your Majesty personally. With a certain number of new armies, your Majesty's power can be demonstrated. The He family and the Yuan family
Therefore, we cannot blatantly increase our power.
With the protection of the emperor's personal army, the emperor's power can be demonstrated. In the future, your majesty can pass this army to the new monarch, and the new monarch will take control of it, and the emperor's power can also be maintained, right?"
"This is a good way."
Liu Hong nodded slowly, and then said worriedly: "Having said that, recruiting and training new troops also requires a lot of money. What should we do with this money?"
Zhang Rang secretly criticized Liu Hong's greed and stinginess.
It's already here, are you still worried about money?
You don’t want the imperial court to pay for you to train your own private army, do you?
My Majesty, when it comes to power, do you still care about money?
"Your Majesty, if you want to train an army that is completely loyal to your Majesty, it is impossible to expect the imperial court to provide money. If the imperial court provides money, this army will be the imperial army. Can your majesty accept it? If you want to reduce the power of the He family
, there must be an army that belongs entirely to His Majesty."
Zhang Rang looked at Liu Hong.
Liu Hong hesitated for a while.
"Do you want me to pay for training the new army myself?"
"I'm afraid... yes."
"this……"
Liu Hong looked embarrassed: "It costs a lot of money to train a new army. A few thousand people are not enough, and the cost of 20,000 to 30,000 people is too much. If I have to bear the burden alone, it will be too..."
This is not the time to consider whether to pay or not, my lord!
Are you still reluctant to spend money on matters related to your power and heir?
Zhang Rang quickly continued to persuade.
"Having said that, if you can train an army that fully obeys your Majesty's orders, doesn't your Majesty think this is a very worthwhile thing?
At present, most of Luoyang's military power is in the hands of He Jin, and coupled with some military power controlled by the Yuan family, it can be said that the situation is already very bad. Does your Majesty want to be controlled by others?"
Liu Hong thought about it and felt that what Zhang Rang said made sense.
Compile an army that is completely your own. The number and scale cannot be small. The equipment and treatment must be the best. You must make this army strong and loyal. Only in this way can you enhance the power of the emperor and avoid losing your control of the situation.
Take control of power.
But this costs a lot of money...
Liu Hong hesitated repeatedly, but still couldn't make up his mind.
Finally, Zhang Rang talked about selling salt and told Liu Hong how much money he made from selling salt and his expected future profits. Liu Hong finally made up his mind to use part of the profits from selling salt to raise troops and train a force of 30,000 people.
of the new army.
After the initial plan was finalized, Liu Hong still had a lot of things to do, such as who should recruit and train this army, who should manage and lead it, the composition of the army's officers, etc. Many things needed to be done.
busy.
But in this kind of matter, Liu Hong himself had no experience, and neither did the ten regular attendants, so Liu Hong was in trouble.
Recruiting new troops and forming an army must be done by capable people. It cannot be done by just finding anyone. There are relatively few real professionals. Most of the people Liu Hong can trust and appoint are eunuchs or eunuchs.
In the eunuch group, there are even fewer such talents.
However, Liu Hong believes that as long as he is willing to explore, such talents will not be scarce.
But the person he most wanted to appoint to help him form the new Xiyuan Army was Liu Bei.
"With Literary Tao and military strategy, he can run an army with mounted horses and herdsmen with dismounted horses. He is also good at building and training troops. The Liangzhou army has won consecutive battles, which shows his ability to run an army. If I can stay in Luoyang, I can sit back and relax...Grandpa
, I really want to call back to Luoyang..."
Call Liu Bei back to Luoyang?
Zhang Rang suddenly remembered what Liu Bei had said to him in the corridor of the palace before.
"If you are in danger in the future, I will save your life."
Such words rang in Zhang Rang's ears repeatedly, and he suddenly felt that if Liu Bei could come back, he would have a lot more sense of security and wouldn't be as frightened as he is now.
If Liu Bei can be here, it will really be a good thing for them.
But Liu Bei is in Liangzhou and has made Liangzhou's construction prosperous. At least for now, it seems unnecessary to let him come back.
Later, while planning to form a new army, Liu Hong suddenly thought of something.
After all, Liu Bian is his eldest surviving son. If nothing unexpected happens, Liu Bian will definitely inherit his position. However, it is hard to say whether Liu Bian can control the power of the Liu family and prevent it from being usurped by the He family.
He could accept Liu Bian as emperor, but he could not accept the outflow of imperial power, so Liu Hong decided that he must prepare some weapons for Liu Bian to deal with the strong intimidation from his mother's family.
At present, the two He brothers, one a general and the other a guard general, control a considerable part of Luoyang's military power. In addition, there is also the possible cooperation of the Yuan family. This is not something Liu Hong wants to see.
Once Liu Bian ascends the throne, there will be no power belonging to the Liu family in Luoyang City, but all the power of the He family and the Yuan family. How can this be done?
It is necessary to strengthen Liu's strength.
And among the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty, is there anyone who can be trusted and can be entrusted with important tasks?
There is one person.
He is a clan member of the Han Dynasty.
He is a member of the Han Dynasty.
His name is Liu Bei.
In Liu Hong's view, Liu Bei didn't have a very deep background. He only had a teacher-student relationship with Lu Zhi, and this teacher-student relationship was placed under his status as a Han clan member. He valued the Han clan clan status more.
Because of his identity, he surrendered to the emperor very early and became the emperor's minion.
Judging from Liu Bei's actions all along, Liu Hong is really unable to draw any other conclusion other than loyalty.
He can only believe that Liu Bei really hopes that the future of the Han Dynasty will be better, and is willing to pay a lot for it. Even his ability is the best in the world.
What reason is there not to reuse such a Han clan clan member who is working wholeheartedly for the future of Han Dynasty? What reason is there not to trust him?
Liu Hong couldn't figure it out anyway.
If Liu Bei can be used as Liu Bian's assistant, Liu Bei can assist Liu Bian and support Liu Bian to ascend the throne, then for Liu Bian, wouldn't it mean that he has a powerful aid belonging to the Liu family?