Looking at the urgent documents sent by Zhang Tang, Gongsun Ao and others from Huainan Kingdom, I felt a little dissatisfied.
The King of Huainan deliberately conspired to rebel and sent troops to attack Tingwei Zhang Tang and others, but they were brutally killed.
Liu An himself has been captured alive, and most of the rebels have been arrested and brought to justice, but the protagonist Liu Ling who participated in them is missing.
Li Yunze, who has read too many stories, can see the fishiness in this at a glance.
He put down the official document and immediately ordered people to find Ju Meng.
Because of his merits in delivering letters, Meng Ye, a former hero, became famous and reached the position of Sima of the Yemen Palace, a palace with a rank higher than that of Qianshi.
Of course, this is only Ju Meng's superficial identity. He also has an identity as the newly appointed embroidered clothing guard by the emperor.
Taking advantage of Ju Meng's influence among the knights, he recruited well-informed people from various places to serve as embroidered guards and secretly collected all kinds of information.
"I, Ju Meng, pay homage to Your Majesty."
When Ju Meng arrived, Li Yunze immediately asked, "Is there any news about the Huainan Kingdom?"
"Yes, I just arrived today." Ju Meng quickly took out the official document that was secretly arranged to be sent by Xiu Yiwei in Huainan Kingdom, and handed it over to Li Yunze.
It is really rare for the emperor to believe whatever the ministers and generals say.
Basically, except for puppets and foolish emperors, most emperors will conduct multiple verifications.
Opening the document, there is generally no difference between the contents recorded on it and the official documents of Zhang Tang and others. However, there are many differences in the details inside.
Just like when Liu An, the king of Huainan, was arrested, he was still arrested in the alchemy room. The official document said, "His appearance is very scary and suspicious."
Obviously, if Xiuyiwei is telling the truth, it means that the King of Huainan did not know about this incident at all. He was not the main initiator of the rebellion as Zhang Tang and others said.
Also, Xiuyiwei said that not long after the fierce battle in Shouchun City started, the city gate was opened, and then the elite cavalry and soldiers of the imperial court surged in like a tide, sealing the victory with one sentence.
Li Yunze even smiled when he saw this.
The reaction was so quick that it was comparable to a quick counterattack force. This was despite the fact that the inside and outside of the city were isolated, and communication basically relied on roaring.
More importantly, no matter how elite the army is, it will take a long time to complete battlefield equipment. The larger the scale, the more time it will take.
Whose army is fully armed at night, does not sleep, and can immediately dispatch as soon as it gets the news and rush into Shouchun City?
The only explanation is that Zhang Tang and others were actually prepared for this, and may even have deliberately lured the forces on King Huainan's side to rebel.
After thinking about this, Li Yunze closed the official document and gave Ju Meng, "File it."
As the emperor, above the scale of justice and evil in his heart, there is also a scale called profit.
As long as the benefits are big enough, many things can be ignored.
So what if Liu An was wrongly accused? Huainan Kingdom, which had obeyed the instructions but not the propaganda, was taken back into the hands of the imperial court. This was enough.
As for the methods used by Zhang Tang and others, Li Yunze could completely pretend that he knew nothing. Anyway, no one would come to him to complain.
As for Liu Ling who escaped, Li Yunze didn't care even more.
She can't change the world.
On the second day, a group of officials were summoned to prepare the imperial edict.
'...The King of Huainan secretly plotted to assassinate the court captain and attack the imperial troops. The crime of deliberate rebellion will not be pardoned. All the offenders, including the leader and subordinates, will be dealt with according to the Han law...'
First the murderous characterization, and then it was time to show the emperor's kind side.
The imperial edict is followed by '...in memory of his meritorious service, Bai Ling is specially given to have a complete corpse...all the followers will be exempted from torture...'
This means to save Liu An's face and grant Bai Ling to keep the body intact. As for the accomplices, there is no need to torture them and they can be dealt with directly.
As for the final step, the Huainan Kingdom's territory was divided into counties and counties, and then personnel were dispatched from Chang'an City to take up their posts.
This also marked that the Huainan Kingdom would be returned to the imperial court from then on.
As for the manpower to be deployed, more than half of the Jinshi who passed the imperial examination this time have been deployed.
The number of Jinshis from Ranking A and Ranking B was about the same, but the Jinshis from Ranking A did not even have a county magistrate, but the starting point of the Jinshis from Ranking B was at least two steps higher than those from Ranking A!
Such obvious differential treatment made the Chang Piao and students from various sects deeply understand the meaning of the emperor and the imperial court.
The person responsible for writing the imperial edict was Dongfang Shuo, who was very outstanding in the imperial examination. He was arranged to serve as Lang Guan next to the emperor.
After writing the imperial edict, he sent it to Li Yunze to wait for it to be sealed.
Dongfang Shuo was still secretly happy.
Before taking the imperial examination, many noble and royal families came to him and expressed their recommendation to take the first-class examination.
Fortunately, I refused at the time, otherwise I wouldn't be able to serve as an official beside the emperor, and I wouldn't even be able to become a county magistrate.
"what are you laughing at?"
Dongfang Shuo, who was immersed in his own intelligence, suddenly heard the emperor's inquiry.
He quickly raised his head and immediately met Li Yunze's eyes.
"I...I am congratulating your Majesty!" Dongfang Shuo's mind was very bright and he thought of an excuse in an instant.
"oh?"
After using the seal, Li Yunze looked at Dongfang Shuo calmly and said, "Speak clearly."
"Here."
Dongfang Shuo saluted and said, "The King of Huainan has been plotting rebellion ever since Liu Chang. Now that he has finally been punished, it is naturally a happy event."
"That's it?" Li Yunze raised his eyebrows and looked at Dongfang Shuo. "If you only have this ability, you will only be able to write imperial edicts in the future."
Dongfang Shuo's mind started working quickly, and he immediately saluted Li Yunze, "Your Majesty, would you like to ask how to reduce the vassal status?"
"Do you have any idea?"
"This..." Dongfang Shuo was a little embarrassed. He really didn't have any good way to solve the problem once and for all.
"If not." Li Yunze withdrew his gaze, "Then let's pass it on to civil and military officials to see who has a way to solve this matter."
"Here."
In the early Han Dynasty, the population of the land directly belonging to the imperial court was not even half.
Later, Liu Bang defeated many kings with different surnames, confiscated their lands, and increased the proportion of the imperial court to more than half.
But as more and more descendants were enfeoffed, the division of land and population naturally affected the court.
In this case, reducing the vassal status is a natural and necessary thing to do.
The Rebellion of the Seven Kings greatly replenished the blood of the Han Dynasty, but unfortunately, Emperor Jing immediately began to enfeoff his sons, and also divided up a lot of territory and population.
Li Yunze followed up on the Huainan King incident and wanted to solve this problem once and for all.
Asking civil and military officials for solutions is just blowing the wind.
His real idea was to completely cut off the feudal system.
It's just that the opposition is too strong, so we have to do it step by step.
Because it was not only the Liu family's royal relatives who were enfeoffed, but those nobles also had their own enfeoffed states and lands.
Li Yunze's breaking of the feudal system was breaking their foundation, which would inevitably lead to a flood of counterattacks.
Naturally, he was not afraid of counterattack, but he could not let the common people of the Han Dynasty be implicated and harmed.
Soon, a new recruitment order spread throughout Chang'an and beyond.
The content of the recruitment order was very simple, which was to ask knowledgeable people to write to the emperor to discuss the enfeoffment system.
As soon as this recruitment order came out, it immediately caused a huge sensation.
Smart people all know that the emperor wants to continue the tradition and then cut down the vassals.
People with vital interests related to this immediately began to operate.
"When the late emperor cut off the vassal vassals, he directly created the Seven Kings Rebellion." Wei Wan, who had been a royal education teacher for a long time, was the first to approach Li Yunze. "If Your Majesty does this again, there will be another Seven Kings Rebellion."
"Isn't that great?" Li Yunze smiled faintly, "The imperial court will take back more land and population."
"His Majesty!!"
Hearing this, Wei Wan was furious and immediately stood up and shouted at Li Yunze, "God has the virtue of good life, the earth has the thickness to carry things, and a gentleman has the beauty of adulthood! As the emperor, how can your majesty have such a vicious heart?!"
Li Yunze lowered his eyelids, "Someone wanted to rebel, but I defeated them. Is this called a vicious heart?"
"If someone conspires to rebel, it is because he is forced by your Majesty!" Wei Wan did not have the slightest fear and immediately retorted, "Your Majesty forces people to rebel. Isn't it vicious?"
Everyone in the Qingliang Hall was frightened. This Wei Wan must have gone crazy and dared to talk to the emperor like this.
Before Wei Wan finished speaking, his beard trembled and he continued, "The King of Huainan is kind and values learning, loves virtuous people eagerly, and is courteous to virtuous people. He summoned famous officials to write "Hong Lie", and Shouchun City is a gathering place for literati. But for your own selfish reasons, your Majesty
, and sent an army of ruthless officials to force the King of Huainan to death.
And you say you don’t have any evil intentions?!”
"oh."
Li Yunze's face showed a clear look, "It turns out that he stood up for Liu An."
"I am not standing up for the King of Huainan, but for the Han Dynasty." Wei Wan, who spoke righteously and sternly, even took a few steps forward to stand in front of Li Yunze. "Your Majesty is so perverse and often uses cruel officials and severe punishments. This is against the will of God."
Looking up at Wei Wan, Li Yunze also smiled, "So, you still advocate forgiveness? If this is the case, and it is God's will to forgive the criminals, then what about the people who were hurt by the criminals? Do they deserve to be unlucky?
"
"Isn't it..."
"It's not your uncle!" Li Yunze suddenly stood up angrily and kicked over the cases in front of him, furious.
"If the guilty are not punished, then why should the Han law be used? Enforcing the law is called cruelty, and punishing the guilty is called violating the will of God? If you find someone to write a book, you can rebel at will?"
Li Yunze stepped forward, stood in front of Wei Wan, and stared at him, "You are a Confucian, right? You Confucians only want to promote the Zhou rites and go back to the era of the Three Sovereigns and the Five Emperors, right? I tell you, as long as I live, I will not
Give you Confucians the slightest chance!
"
"What are the Zhou rites, what are the three emperors and five emperors, Yao, Shun, Yu and Tang? Let me tell you, there were no saints in that era. They were all conspiracy and conspiracy to fight for power and profit. What you advocate is fundamentally nonsense!"
After venting his anger, Li Yunze took a deep breath and turned to look at his father-in-law, "Preach the decree that in the future imperial examinations, all Confucian disciples will not be accepted!"