Liu Biao died, Liu Zhang died, Liu Yu died, and all the princes of the Liu family were extinct.
Only Liu Bei still exists and still controls the three prefectures of Hebei.
Liu Bei was the emperor's uncle of the Han Dynasty appointed by Liu Xie, and the King of Yan, who was officially conferred the title of the court. Legal theory, if Liu Xie died and the descendants of Liu Xie were unable to inherit the throne, then Liu Bei would be the most orthodox heir.
If the Han Dynasty court in Chang'an was destroyed, then Liu Bei could have been upright and announced in Yecheng that he would inherit the Han Dynasty's throne and become emperor.
Chen Qun is not wrong. If Liu Xie does not die, Liu Bei will never be able to become emperor, and at most he will be Zhou Gong.
Only when Liu Xie dies can he realize his dream of becoming emperor.
However, the excitement in Liu Bei's eyes flashed for a moment, and then he was filled with anger.
"Chen Chang, Wang is loyal to the emperor and support the Han Dynasty, which is seen by all the people in the world. You have made such a rebellious statement. Do you want the king to learn from the Yan thief and Cao Cao to be the treacherous minister who usurped the throne?
”
Liu Bei raised his chest and scolded Chen Qun with righteousness.
"The king should calm down, I have no intention." Chen Qun pretended to be frightened, but said, "But I think that as a descendant of the Liu family, the king must stand up and continue the Han Dynasty.
The country. Otherwise, Yan Liang deposed the Han Dynasty and usurped the throne, and the subjects who missed the Han Dynasty in the world lost their loyalty, and the hearts of the people gradually became distant. Even if the king did not inherit the great throne, he would probably not be able to defend half of Hebei."
Chen Qun looked loyal and loyal, with a loyal and sincere look, and was full of emotion and was extremely contagious.
The anger on Liu Bei's face gradually eased.
Chen Qun then stumbled indirectly, moved him with emotion and explained his reason. He tried hard to persuade him.
After listening for a long time, Liu Bei finally sighed: "As the elders said, as a descendant of the Han Dynasty, if the king really came to that day, he should indeed bear the burden of continuing the Han Dynasty. Otherwise, how could he be worthy of his ancestors?"
Chen Qun was overjoyed and hurriedly praised Liu Bei for his wiseness.
"But, the king is still a little worried." Liu Bei changed his tone and said worriedly: "The king is just worried that these powerful men of the aristocratic families in Hebei may not support the king to become emperor and continue the Han Dynasty.
Chen Qun smiled and said, "The king has no worries. I have a plan here. I will definitely ask those powerful men of the aristocratic families to support the king in their hearts to continue the throne."
"What's the clever plan?" Liu Bei suddenly felt refreshed
Chen Qun stroked his beard and said slowly: "If the king wants to inherit the king and become emperor, he must align the interests of the powerful aristocratic families with the interests of the king. If Shuchen said that if he doesn't come to the forefront, only the king and
The interests of the aristocratic races are united, and one prospers and one loses, and one loses one's own interests will do their best to support the king."
Although Chen Qun's words are straightforward, they are also the reality.
Now is no longer as good as before. Now the majesty of the Han Dynasty has disappeared. The reason why Liu Bei was able to rule the three prefectures of Hebei was not because of his title of the great Han emperor, but his fist.
In other words, today he was Liu Bei's fist, so the Hebei aristocratic tyrants were loyal to him, and Yan Liang came to fight again. Seeing that Yan Liang's fist was bigger, it was not impossible for the Hebei aristocratic sects to collectively turn against Yan Liang under the influence of interests.
This is exactly what Liu Bei was worried about. Zhuge Liang and others have never seen through it, but they do not want to expose it to Chen Qun.
"Then Chen Chang had a plan to call the benefits of the powerful men of Hebei... Then what, is it consistent with the king?" Liu Bei was ashamed to say the word "interest" and used "that's what" instead.
Chen Qun coughed a few times and joked: "I have designed a set of methods to select officials in private. If the king can implement this method in the country, I would like to ask the scholars in Hebei to support the king with all their hearts."
"The method of selecting officials?" Liu Bei was very surprised, "What method of selecting officials?"
"This method is called the ninth-rank official law. The content of this method is like this..."
Next, Chen Qun carefully explained the details of his ninth-rank official law to Liu Bei.
The law of the ninth rank official is mainly the court that the "virtuous and knowledgeable" central officials, who also serve as Zhongzheng officials of the prefectures, counties and counties of their original locations, and are responsible for inspecting scholars scattered in various places, and comprehensively integrating their virtues
Talent, family background, and "character" and "character" are established, and the court will serve as a reference for selecting officials.
The so-called "qualification" refers to the ranks evaluated by scholars and talents, and are divided into nine grades in total.
The so-called "character" is the comment of the Zhongzheng official on the moral character of scholars, similar to the famous scholars in the Han Dynasty who evaluated people with "good virtue and less ability" and "treacherous heroes in troubled times".
When the rank is determined, the rank of the scholar is comprehensively classified and given to equivalent official positions according to the rank.
"If the king practices this ninth rank official law, the powerful people of the aristocratic clan will have a smooth road to become officials and serve the king. In this way, the aristocratic clans will fully support the king to ensure that their power to be an official will not be subject to
threaten."
"On the contrary, the king has gained great benefits from both the talents of the aristocratic race and the support of the entire aristocratic race."
Chen Qun expressed his own system of selecting officials, but only made Liu Bei more excited and nodded repeatedly to praise him.
"This method is really wonderful. It is indeed much better to institutionalize the selection of officials than the system of "Secretary and Advice." Liu Bei praised him in a desperate voice.
Chen Qun showed a little smugness and stroked his beard and smiled: "I am not hiding it from the king. In fact, when I was in Chang'an, I also mentioned this ninth-rank official law to Cao Mengde, but he used his trick for Cao Cao's talent.
It is a way to reject the law of selecting officials. Now it seems that the king is still wise."
Liu Bei smiled, "Cao Cao's method of employing people is actually good, and Wang has always admired his method."
"Only talent is to choose some useful talents, but if the selected talents are not good and will hold great power in the future, wouldn't it cause greater harm to the country? Therefore, the so-called "only talent is to choose" is just
A short-sighted move is not a long-term plan for peace and stability.”
Chen Qun criticized Cao Cao's approach to employing people, as if he was venting his discomfort of Cao Cao's not using his approach.
However, Liu Bei agreed with Chen Qun's evaluation.
Shortly after the conversation that day, Liu Bei rewarded Chen Qunhou, and then summoned two important officials, Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi, to discuss in the future.
After an informal small banquet, Liu Bei revealed the ninth-rank official law to the two of them and asked them for their opinions.
Zhuge Liang and the other two showed great interest in these ninth-rank officials.
However, after his initial novelty, Zhuge Liang bowed and said, "Although this ninth-rank official law looks good, Liang thought that there is actually a hidden worry."
"What hidden worries?" Liu Bei said suspiciously.
"This hidden worry is the appointment of Zhongzheng. All Zhongzheng officials in this law must be appointed by the central government, especially the Zhongzheng officials in the state. First, they must reach the second rank or above. Most of the officials who can meet this standard are from aristocratic families.
Origin of a large family.
After a pause, Zhuge Liang continued: "This means that at the beginning of this law, most of the Zhongzheng officials, including the Zhongzheng officials at the provincial level, would be responsible for the famous scholars of the aristocratic race. These people are,
Most of them will also tend to be a clan. Over time, it will inevitably lead to a situation where family status is the most important and virtue and talent are the least important. This seems inappropriate."
Liu Bei fell into deep thought and thought about what Zhuge Liang said, which seemed to be reasonable.
Sima Yi smiled and said, "Kong Ming was worried too much. With the heroic name of the king, the official chosen by the central government must be a pure and upright and strict person. When selecting talents, he will naturally be fair and will be partial."
Sima Yi said "The King is wise", which made Liu Bei feel comfortable and made him stroking his beard and laughing, which was quite proud.
"Zhongda's words are reasonable. How could the king use those favoritism? It seems that the military advisor Kong Ming is indeed over-thinking." Liu Bei laughed.
"Your Majesty, can you be fair and strict, but can you guarantee that your descendants will be like you, alas..."
Zhuge Liang wanted to say this bluntly, but then he thought about it and felt that this was like he was damaging Liu Bei to die early. After thinking about it, he swallowed it back.
Liu Bei made a decision and asked his subordinates to discuss the specific details and come up with a definite plan to implement these nine-rank official law in the Great Yan Kingdom.
Yan Liang, who was thousands of miles away, had no time to care about what Liu Bei was doing, but was busy "using the throne and becoming emperor".
Yan Liang did give Liu Xie a few days to consider the banquet that day, but Liu Xie had thought about it for seven or eight days and had no sound inquiry.
Yan Liang sent someone to the palace to ask, and it turned out that Liu Xie claimed to be unwell and hid in the bedroom and started to be an ostrich.
Of course Yan Liang knew that Liu Xie was a dead pig who was not afraid of boiling water. He pretended to be sick and delayed the time. He would delay the time when he could.
This trick may be useful if you play with others. If it were Yan Liang, there would be no chance.
Early in the morning that day, Yan Liang left the mansion with full arms and led a thousand tiger guard soldiers into the palace with great momentum.
The news of Yan Liang entering the palace was immediately spread to the inner palace. Liu Xie knew that he could not escape this time, so he reluctantly changed his court uniform and hurried to the Golden Palace.
The queen Fu Shou heard that Yan Liang led his army into the palace, and was afraid that Liu Xie would be unable to deal with it and that he would suffer any humiliation. She hurried to the hall.
The couple entered the hall together, and as soon as they sat down on the dragon seat, the gate of the Golden Palace was rudely pushed open from the outside.
A thousand soldiers rushed in and quickly lined up on the wings of the hall. The sharp blade reflected a terrifying cold light, which instantly condensed the atmosphere of the hall into ice.
Liu Xie's heart trembled, cold sweat began to roll down his forehead, and his heart immediately rose to his throat.
Amid the banging footsteps, Yan Liang was wearing golden armor, holding a sword in his hand, stalking with his head held high, and entering the hall.
Liu Xie took a deep breath and barely smiled: "The King of Chu is so anxious to enter the court. I don't know what's going on. Come on, give the King of Chu a seat."
Yan Liang ignored Liu Xie's smile and strode straight to the higher level. His tower-like body stood in front of Liu Xie in a blink of an eye. His towering body almost blocked the sunlight behind him.
With a knife-like gaze, Yan Liang said coldly: "Liu Xie, do you want to give up this throne or not? Today I will give Wang a happy word."