Based on past experience and what happened, Liu Hong believed that Liu Bei was an outstanding talent, someone who could compete with Yuan Wei and He Jin and protect Emperor Liu.
So after that, he had to find an opportunity to transfer Liu Bei back to Luoyang and give him important powers to compete with the Yuan family and the He family, and to support the power of the Liu family.
However, Liu Hong thought about it later and discovered a shortcoming of Liu Bei.
Compared with powerful opponents like Yuan Wei and He Jin, Liu Hong felt that although Liu Bei had enough abilities, talents, and status, he still lacked one important thing.
The right to open a government.
In the Han system, only the three princes and the generals have the right to open a government, so currently the entire Han Dynasty has the power to open a government and recruit people from all over the world. Because there is a vacancy in the general office, currently, only Yuan Wei, Lu Zhi and He Jin are the three.
people.
They can build their own political power across the country, establish a huge political power network, and win over the people of the world to a certain extent.
But Liu Bei could not. Liu Bei's influence was limited to Liangzhou, Yizhou and Sanhe.
This level of influence cannot support Liu Bei's successful fight against the Yuan family and the He family.
Although Lu Zhi is Liu Bei's teacher, Liu Hong cannot trust Lu Zhi in this matter. He can only trust Liu Bei. Since Liu Bei lacks the power to open a government, he still lacks the trump card to truly participate in top-level political games.
.
So, what to do?
Appoint Liu Bei as Sikong?
Or should we break through the restrictions and give the power of opening the palace to the hussar general?
Liu Hong began to have a clearer idea about this matter, but he did not disclose this idea to anyone for the time being.
Liu Hong felt that he was only in his thirties and it was not yet time to consider this matter.
He didn't think that he would die so early. He felt that he was still very capable and capable of making things. He could at least survive until Liu Bian became an adult and matured. He still had a lot of time to slowly operate and prepare.
Of course, weakening the He family and the Yuan family cannot be delayed, it must be done immediately.
For these two difficult opponents who have the power to open a government, if they really become the climate, it will be too difficult to deal with them. Even if Liu Bei is called back, Liu Bei may not be able to achieve a complete victory in the face of their deep foundation.
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Therefore, Liu Hong decided to establish a new army as soon as possible, starting from the military level, to create an army that belonged entirely to the Liu family and the imperial power, and to use this army as a fulcrum to leverage the situation.
He endured heartache and allocated funds, personally presided over the selection of talents, selected talents from the eunuch system and the Hongdu Menxue system, and strived to fully control this army.
And it was during this link that something went wrong.
Zhang Rang originally thought that Liu Hong's choice for the leader of the new army would be chosen from those recommended by himself, or even if it was not good, he would be chosen from those recommended by Zhao Zhong.
This new army will become the latest achievement of the alliance between the emperor and the eunuchs, and will jointly implement the will of this alliance.
But he never expected that the person Liu Hong selected was named Jian Shuo.
Jian Shuo's position is only a small yellow door, not close to the regular servants. He does not belong to the traditional high-level eunuch system. His relationship with the current ten regular servants is not close, and there is little contact between them.
The main reason why he was selected was that he was strong and had military skills. He was an extremely rare "talent" with some military ability among the eunuchs, and he was a rare "real man" among the eunuchs.
Before Liu Hong selected him, no one knew that he could be selected by Liu Hong.
The reason why Liu Hong chose Jian Shuo is also very simple.
With a low status, it is difficult to have any confidence in dealing with the emperor. He will be more obedient, and he does not have many connections among the eunuchs. It is easier to handle, and it is also easy to gain loyalty.
In short, compared to Zhang Rang, Zhao Zhong and others who already had stable interest groups to which they belonged, Jian Shuo was more likely to be loyal to the emperor rather than his own interest group.
To be honest, Liu Hong had previously planned to select a few candidates recommended by Zhang Rang and others to serve as the main officers of the new army, and even planned to appoint Zhao Zhong to lead the new army.
But just when he was about to make up his mind, he suddenly remembered something.
During the Taiping Dao Rebellion, the eunuch group in the palace was infiltrated by Taiping Dao. Many people joined Taiping Dao and even planned to assist Zhang Jiao in attacking him.
In the end, the conspiracy was destroyed, and Liu Hong's safety was not threatened, but this incident was real.
That incident was still fresh in Liu Hong's memory. Although Zhang Rang and others used a large amount of money to deal with it, and also put the responsibility on the deceased Shi Changshi of the previous generation, the incident seemed to have turned over.
But when it came to really important things, the thorn buried deep in Liu Hong's heart began to ache again.
He began to doubt whether Zhang Rang and others were absolutely loyal to him.
This kind of matter related to the future pattern cannot be trusted without absolute loyalty.
The dull feeling of pain made Liu Hong worried about selecting talents recommended by Zhang Rang and others to control the strength of the Xiyuan Army.
In the end, this feeling prompted Liu Hong not to choose the candidate provided by Zhang Rang and others. Instead, he promoted the special being Jian Shuo from his own limited memory and gave him the task of forming a new army and leading it.
Jian Shuo.
Liu Hong believed that commanding the new army remotely through Jian Shuo was a very direct and convenient matter. On the contrary, commanding the new army through Zhang Rang and others must go through additional procedures such as Zhang Rang and Zhao Zhong.
Liu Hong didn't like this procedure.
Jian Shuo was inexplicably surprised. When he learned that the power from heaven had fallen on his head, he was nothing but pleasantly surprised. Then he ran to express his loyalty to Liu Hong in tears. With Liu Hong's encouragement, he decided to repay Liu with his life.
Hong's kindness to him.
In contrast, the traditional Shi Changshi group had doubts, wariness and dissatisfaction with Jian Shuo, a sudden rise.
Regarding Liu Hong's sudden promotion of Jian Shuo, a junior from Huangmen, as the commander of the new army, even Zhang Rang, who served Liu Hong, did not know and could not understand, and further developed deeper worries, feeling that Liu Hong was
It’s not that I don’t trust them anymore.
If they lose Liu Hong's trust, it will be very fatal for them.
There are only so many interests, and the plate of interests is so big. Jian Shuo suddenly appears and leads the new army to intervene in this gluttonous feast, which is a threat to each of them.
But it was the emperor who did this, and they could not figure out what the emperor meant.
Zhang Rang and Zhao Zhong made several insinuations about this matter, trying to get Liu Hong to express his thoughts, but Liu Hong didn't say anything and just tried to pass it off, as if the matter didn't exist.
When the new army was established, it faced uneasiness within the imperial power group, which was obviously not a good thing.
And for people outside the Imperial Group, it's even worse.
Yuan Wei and He Jin heard about this incident when there were faint rumors about it. They thought it was nonsense at first.
But as time went by, until the people Liu Hong sent out to recruit soldiers had dispersed, they had to confirm that Liu Hong really wanted to cause trouble.
After further thinking about this matter and some gossip within the eunuchs obtained by the Yuan family, Yuan Wei even came to the conclusion that the emperor's establishment of a new army was probably not only to target He Jin, but also to target Yuan.
Shi.
It is said that the emperor wanted to establish a new army because he was dissatisfied with the fact that Yuan was close to He Jin.
Yuan Wei felt vaguely uneasy in his heart. He felt that he had indeed been a little too excited recently. Arranging for the Yuan family's children to join the army and obtain important military positions was really a blink of an eye, not to mention that Yuan Shao had a very good relationship with He Jin.
Such news spread and was known to the emperor, which made the emperor feel unsafe and decided to establish a new army...
This situation was completely beyond Yuan Wei's expectation.
He did want to establish the Yuan family's transcendent political status, but he did not expect that Liu Hong would be so wary of this matter, and would decide to launch a counterattack so quickly and be on guard in advance.
He Jin was also very uneasy about this matter. He called Yuan Shao to discuss the matter with Yuan Shao.