Three thousand miles in exile

On the way out of the palace gate, Zhao Jizhang and Liu Tongxin walked side by side, they walked late, and there was no one else around at this time.

"Have you fixed the date for going north?" Zhao Jizhang asked in a low voice.

"It's settled, it will be at the end of summer." Liu Tongxin sighed.

Last year, before the winter in northern Xinjiang, Liu Zhan wrote to the two elders frankly about the establishment of the country. Now that northern Xinjiang is doing well, Liu Tongxin made several decisions and finally decided to move his family north.

Not everyone in Liu's residence agreed to go north, but Emperor Liang would be angry if Liu Zhan established the country, and they had to leave if they didn't.

Zhao Jizhang nodded, not surprised. "Is everything ready for departure?"

"Zhan'er arranged for someone to pick us up, so no one will find out." Liu Tongxin looked at the imperial capital from a distance, although he felt reluctant, but he also understood the general trend.

"That's good." Zhao Jizhang sighed. Although he was moved, his family wanted to stay in the capital.

The Zhao family also has a title in Daliang, and it is the Ming Shenggong who has been hereditary for three generations. It is no different when he went to Northern Xinjiang as a duke.

After weighing the two, Zhao Jizhang decided to stay.

But at this moment, a team of imperial guards chased after him.

"Liu Shangshu, please stop, Your Majesty is here to welcome you!"

Liu Tongxin's heart skipped a beat. He was not a confidant, and Emperor Liang never summoned him in private.

At this time, the atmosphere in the royal study was strange.

"General Qi Yun's disobedience is clearly revealed. It has spread throughout the northern border. This year he will definitely proclaim himself king." Pei Gongli's expression darkened.

"Liu Shangshu, General Qi Yun is the heir of your Liu family who was exiled to northern Xinjiang, isn't it?" Pei Gongli asked.

After the case was filed, Liang Tianzi stared at Liu Tongxin viciously.

"Your Majesty, it's nothing!" Liu Tongxin hurriedly knelt down, but he was already dripping with sweat.

"When my elder brother's descendants were exiled to northern Xinjiang, half of the children died on the way, and the ages that survived were not at the right age. Therefore, it is absolutely impossible."

In this matter, Liu Tongxin could only insist that the age of the child was not right.

"Pei Shinong, what do you think?" Liang Tianzi looked at Pei Gongli.

Pei Gongli looked down with a half-smile. "This was said by your nephew Liu Xueli himself. There were other family members at the banquet last night, and now it has spread throughout the imperial capital."

Liu Tongxin didn't show it on the surface, but in fact his heart was already turned upside down.

"Liu Xueli said it himself, how Liu Zhan became a great minister step by step, opened an academy, went down the mountain to rob food, everything happened in detail." Pei Gongli clapped his hands. "Bring it up."

Liu Xueli, who smelled of alcohol, was escorted up.

Liu Tongxin's hands were trembling with anger, this rebellious son who succeeds more than fails!

"Retell what you said last night." Pei Gongli bowed his head.

At this time, Liu Xueli had already woken up most of his drunkenness, and his whole body was shaking like chaff.

"That... that..." He hesitated to speak.

"Your Majesty!" Liu Tongxin prostrated himself on the ground. "The prisoners in exile don't even have a copper coin. What do they use to run schools and recruit soldiers! It's nonsense!"

"You can help them." Liang Tianzi grinned.

Liu Tongxin was shocked!

"Your Majesty! On the way to northern Xinjiang, two older children died on the road, so General Qi Yun's age is not right!"

There was some hesitation in Liang Tianzi's gloomy eyes, when Liu was sentenced to exile, there was his cousin among them, and Fang Shouting was asked about this matter.

"No one in Northern Xinjiang knows that Liu Xueyuan, the dean of Yunzhong Academy, is the biological father of General Qi Yun. This matter has been verified by me." Pei Gongli will not let him go so easily.

Liu Tongxin only felt chills all over.

At this moment, Liu Xueli spoke tremblingly. "There is no such thing...Your Majesty! Xiaomin was drunk last night, and he uttered nonsense just for the sake of embarrassment."

Thankfully he wasn't stupid.

Liu Tongxin answered immediately. "Your Majesty! I found the leader of the escort back then and asked him to lead the way to collect the children's bones. The bones were collected and buried in the ancestral grave. There are well-documented records!"

At that time, Liu Tongxin did know that Tao'er died on the road and ordered people to collect the bones, but there was only Tao'er's body.

Liu Xueli's drunkenness is also completely awake. Last night, in order to frighten those who made fun of him, he only wanted to be brave and didn't think about anything else.

What should be said should not be said, he said it all.

"Your Majesty, Xiaomin is the son-in-law of the clan. How could Pei Si Nong punish the clan for a drunken remark! Xiaomin, Xiaomin is just talking nonsense!" At this moment Liu Xueli was shocked and frightened, trembling all over Can't stop.

He is used to it in Northern Xinjiang, and it is common to talk nonsense after drinking. Anyway, everyone in Northern Xinjiang will make him three-pointed and afraid of him.

The so-called bad habits are hard to change, he talks nonsense when he is drunk, but Dijing is not Beijiang, who would let him?

After waking up, Liu Xueli also understood the seriousness of the matter. Fortunately, he was not stupid enough to excuse himself as a clan relative and son-in-law.

After proclaiming himself emperor, Liang Tianzi became more and more suspicious.

Daliang has completely taken over Dachu, and Daliang Chaotang is no different from Dachu Chaotang back then.

The ministers of the aristocratic family are intriguing, and the treasury is empty and the household department is losing money year after year. All these have forced the high-spirited Fang Yuliang into a person he almost doesn't even know himself.

Liu Tongxin also took the opportunity to say: "Your Majesty! I, the Liu family, have been wronged! It is well known that General Qi Yun came from a poor family!"

"Okay!" Liang Tianzi felt dizzy from the noise.

He also felt that the possibility was unlikely, mainly because Xu Muyuan also said that Liu Zhan came from a poor family.

"I'm sorry that you are the son-in-law of the clan, so you won't be sent to jail today, and you will be convicted after Peisinong finds out." Emperor Liang stood up, he didn't want to stay here any longer.

On weekdays, Emperor Liang was very partial to Fang's royal family, and he was unwilling to persecute Fang's royal family.

Pei Gongli secretly hated it, but he had no choice but to do so.

After stepping out of the palace, Liu Tongxin's feet felt weak.

"My lord!" The housekeeper hurriedly supported him.

"Uncle..." Liu Xueli wanted to apologise, but Liu Tongxin snorted coldly and got into the carriage with a wave of his sleeves.

He had planned to leave at the end of summer, but now he couldn't wait anymore, maybe something would happen tomorrow.

"Hurry up and write to Liu Ji Firm, we will leave tonight!" Liu Tongxin decided immediately.

At that time, the general's mansion in Jinyang City was preparing for the founding of the country, and many things had to be arranged in advance.

In the meeting hall, Song Fenglin led the big shopkeepers of Liuji Commercial Bank to discuss.

"Businesses in places other than Beijiang can no longer use Liu Ji's name to transfer Liu Ji's business to a spare firm. You have discussed the articles of association and handed them over to me."

Song Fenglin didn't say it clearly, but everyone understood that General Qi Yun was about to become king.

From then on, Liuji Commercial Bank only operated in northern Xinjiang for the time being, and used other firms to operate outside northern Xinjiang.

Fortunately, Song Fenglin had prepared for the rainy day. In addition to Liu Ji Firm, he also had many firms with different names under his name.

The so-called Three Caves of the Cunning Rabbit was prepared by Song Fenglin in the early years to prevent changes in northern Xinjiang and to live with Liu Zhan and his family incognito.

"Our backup company has been operating stably, and there will be no chaos in taking over Liu Ji's business." Liu Cheng said.

Song Fenglin instructed again. "There are also shopkeepers and managers in various places who have to be assessed and screened, and Chen Gong's incident must not happen again."

Several big shopkeepers hurriedly and solemnly agreed.

After making arrangements for the company, another group of people was waiting for Song Fenglin to meet him.

Wen Qingshan showed Song Fenglin the style of his official uniform.

These official uniform crown belts have been slightly modified from the Chu system, and the dress still follows the Zhou rituals, while the official uniform has simplified some cumbersome accessories.

These cumbersome accessories are actually not very useful, they are just set up by the aristocratic family to show their status. There are strict requirements on what grade to wear and what accessories to wear.

Liu Zhan felt that it was not useful, so he canceled it with a wave of his hand.

Song Fenglin felt that it was inappropriate to cancel all of them, and officials still had to have a dignified manner, so they left it symbolically.

Today, the styles of official robes of all grades are ready, and Wen Qingshan personally brings the embroidery supervisor to send them over for the two of them to have a look.

"Go and ask the general to come over." Song Fenglin called out.

Liu Zhan listened to the scouts report on the battle in Hanzhong in the front hall.

Since the beginning of spring, Hanzhong once again suffered a large-scale attack from Xirong, and the two armies fought fiercely at Yumen Pass.

It has been decided that there will be no wars in northern Xinjiang, so Liu Zhan pays close attention to the battle situation in Hanzhong when he has nothing to do. By the way, he deduces the battle situation and discusses the drill with Cao Zhuang and others.

After the spring, Liu Zhan re-planned the Qiyun army. On the basis of the left and right camps, he added new garrison generals in each pass, and the personnel also experienced a major movement.

Except for Cao Zhuang and Li Xiaolian who were promoted to left forward generals and right forward generals to stay in the central army, the rest of the garrison generals were released to garrison several passes.

The generals under his command have their own duties, and Liu Zhan is much freer now than in the past.

Song Fenglin sent someone to pass it on, and Liu Zhan came soon.

"I have met General Qi Yun." The officials saluted one after another.

Liu Zhan waved his hand to signal his refusal, and he sat directly beside Song Fenglin. "Only this?"

"I'll unfold it for you to see." Wen Qingshan hurriedly asked several embroiderers to unfold the official uniforms one by one.

At this time, Cao Zhuang, who came with him, opened his eyes sharply.

"Is this the new military uniform? It's so pretty!" Cao Zhuang circled around those military uniforms and couldn't put them down.

"How are these colors divided? What colors do I and Da Zhuang wear?" Li Xiaolian asked impatiently.

Wen Qingshan replied: "The lord wears crimson purple, the third rank and above wears true red, the fourth to sixth rank wears true blue, the seventh rank and below wears true blue, and the filthy officials who are not in the ranks wear light gray."

This is the specification set by Song Fenglin. Each grade is distinguished by the number of beams on the beam crown and accessories, and different patterns are embroidered on the official robes according to the grade.

Like the dragon robes that Liu Zhan ordered, the official uniforms are also simple and elegant, not like Daliang's official robes, which are full of flowers and colorful, like opera costumes.

Liu Zhan took a sip of the tea offered by Song Fenglin. "The styles are all good, let's make it like this."

General Qi Yun made a decision, and the embroidery workshop began to rush to make official robes for officials.

Because there are not many decorations on the official robes, the embroidery speed is much faster than that of the dragon robes. It is estimated that all the official uniforms of the officials of various ministries can be produced within two months.

Turning back and forth, Song Fenglin showed Liu Zhan the list of officials.

After the founding of the country, six ministries must be established, namely officials, households, rites, soldiers, criminals, and workers. This is the most basic configuration of a country, except for tribal countries like Yan.

"I've only preliminarily decided on six parts, and the rest are like Sangong Jiuqing. I don't have an idea yet." Song Fenglin said.

"There is no need for three princes and nine ministers, and there is no need for a prime minister." Liu Zhan put down the list with deep eyes.

"Set up a cabinet, including one chief assistant, two second assistants, and four cabinet ministers. The function is equivalent to your secretariat. It is responsible for splitting and handling daily government affairs. We only need to approve it."

Song Fenglin was stunned, it was really unheard of.

Liu Zhan explained. "Cabinet officials don't need to be given high grades. They are just equivalent to our eyes and hands. Apart from classifying memorials and submitting countermeasures, they have no other powers and are independent of the six ministries."

It is equivalent to turning the power of the prime minister into an institution, and the officials in this institution also supervise and restrict each other.

The two only need to review the memorial after the cabinet's instructions, and if it is not handled properly, it will be sent back, and if it is handled properly, it will be stamped and issued.

In this way, tedious official duties are greatly simplified.

Liu Zhan does have his own unique views on employing people.

The cabinet mechanism he established is the advanced version of the secretariat.

Apart from criticizing memorials and discussing countermeasures, they do not have any power in their hands, nor can they hold other official positions concurrently. Without power, the appearance of important cabinet ministers is eliminated.

It is impossible for the prime minister of Chu to cover the sky with his hands at every turn, which cannot happen in northern Xinjiang.

"Just do as you wish." Song Fenglin nodded in admiration.

"There are more." Liu Zhan clicked on the list of those titles. "Both officials and titles are not hereditary and there is no fiefdom. The titles of the founding heroes will be reduced by two generations, and will be taken back by the fourth generation."

Song Fenglin couldn't help being taken aback, this means that the title of title is just a title of honor, not even a fiefdom, and no privileges other than the title of the title.

No wonder Liu Zhan sent out several with a big wave of his hand, this is just nice.

Seeing that Song Fenglin was speechless for a while, Liu Zhan explained: "Some things are easier to settle now than to deal with the mess later."

Liu Zhan didn't want to do the same thing, so he didn't grant privileges from the beginning, and rooted out the lawlessness of these upstarts in the future.

After thinking about it, Song Fenglin also understood Liu Zhan's intention.

The so-called don't worry about the few but the uneven, if someone gives the title and someone doesn't, it is inevitable that there will be troubles, even if there is no trouble for a while, troubles will eventually arise.

Now that the title is reduced to a false title, relatives and meritorious officials have a share, and there are only two generations left and right, and they will disappear later.

Liu Zhan still takes a long-term view of things.

At this point, all the matters for the establishment of the country have been roughly settled, and there is only one remaining, and it is a very important one.

"Has the country's title been decided?" Song Fenglin asked.

"It's settled." Liu Zhan sat lazily.

"Just call me Han, and I'm the King of Han."

This is an unprecedented country title.

Since the Zhou Dynasty, the titles of the princes and kings of the world have followed the titles of the princes entrusted by the emperor of Zhou, such as Qin, Chu, Han, Qi, Zhao, Yanlu.

Han, this is a brand new country name.

During summer and autumn, the palace located on Fenghuang Hill was completely completed.

Entering from Duanli Gate, the main entrance, are the yamen, that is, the six Caos are arranged on the left and right.

Proceed along the central axis to the Chengyun Gate. After entering the Chengyun Gate, there is an open square. The Chengyun Hall standing on the high platform is the place where the early courts discussed.

The rear of the Chengyun Hall is connected to the Cunxin Hall, which is the Imperial Study Room.

The harem is separated from the front palace by a long street, and the sleeping palaces of the king and queen are on the central axis, surrounded by palace walls and independent in the harem.

In addition, the harem is divided into the Royal Garden, the Prince's Hall, the East Third Courtyard, the West Third Courtyard and the Family Temple.

Although the palace is not very magnificent, but the layout is regular and grand, which fits the rough temperament of northern Xinjiang very well.

Liu Zhan originally wanted to move in earlier to live comfortably, but the time for enthronement and founding the country can be decided later.

"It's not right to move in directly. According to etiquette, the officials will welcome you into the palace after three resignations and three concessions." Song Fenglin said.

Liu Zhan's face was clouded with three words and three concessions.

Song Fenglin smiled again. "I'll arrange it."

The next day, Liu Zhan was arranged to sit neatly in the meeting hall, and Song Fenglin led all the officials into the courtyard at noon.

"Northern Xinjiang has been in turmoil since the previous dynasty, and the people are in dire straits. The general expelled the Yan thieves and helped the country to repair the internal and external governance. He deserves the name of a saint. The ministers beseech the general to become the king, seal the soil and build the country!"

After Song Fenglin finished speaking, he took the lead in kneeling and prostrating.

Liu Zhan subconsciously wanted to help, and at this time all the officials also knelt down.

"I implore the general to ascend the throne!" Cao Zhuang's loud voice startled all the birds that landed on the roof into the air.

"I implore the general to become king!" The brothers in the barracks echoed one after another.

"Get up first." Liu Zhan hooked Song Fenglin's arm to bring him up.

"You leave first." Song Fenglin reminded in a low voice.

"I'm not enthroned, you go back." Liu Zhan brought Song Fenglin into the house.

Everyone had agreed on the steps a long time ago. After Liu Zhan's resignation, they all left the General's Mansion without hesitation. Half an hour later, the gate of the General's Mansion was noisy again.

"General! If you don't become king, I will crash and die here today!" Cao Ming hugged the pillar in front of the gate of the general's mansion and slammed it into the big pillar.

When Cao Zhuang and Zhang Xiaoman heard that Qingshan and other generals and officials were busy pulling people, the scene was sad and touching.

The people surrounded the inner three floors and the outer three floors, and the soldiers outside the door did not drive them away.

The two stepped out of the general's mansion, and when they saw Cao Ming wearing a helmet hitting a pillar, Liu Zhan almost couldn't help laughing.

"It's all gone. This general will not be enthroned." Liu Zhan left a message and went back.

This time Cao Zhuang and the others stopped standing and rushed over to hug Liu Zhan's thigh.

"General! For the people of Northern Xinjiang, please ascend the throne and become king! If Northern Xinjiang is merged into Daliang, the heavy taxes collected by the emperor will fall on the people. How can we have a good life in Northern Xinjiang!"

All the officials choked with grief. "General please ascend the throne!"

As soon as the onlookers heard it, they would have to pay Daliang's tax if they merged into Daliang?You must know that there are no exorbitant taxes in northern Xinjiang!

For a while, the people also knelt down in fright.

"Let's not merge into the main beam!"

"I implore the general to be the king and lead the northern border!"

This time Liu Zhan couldn't refuse, even he was stunned.

"Go back first." Song Fenglin pulled him in, this was the second time and there were four more times.

The election of General Qi Yun as king by all the officials did not cause too many disturbances among the people, but the sentence that the merged into Daliang would require harsher taxes terrified the people of the whole city.

For a while, the people were unwilling to retreat, and they followed the officials to petition outside the general's mansion, and even more and more people joined in.

"The general and the people want it, I implore the general to become the king!" For the last time, Song Fenglin personally led all the officials to kneel down to invite the new king.

Cao Zhuang immediately took out the black dragon robe that he had prepared a long time ago and put it on Liu Zhan's body. Once the dragon robe was added to his body, Liu Zhan could no longer resign.