Chapter 983 Zu Clan

Chapter 983 Zu Clan

Chapter 983 Zu Clan
"What? There is already someone from the Zu family in Luoyang?" Shao Zhang was very surprised when he heard the news, because he actually didn't know about it.

Although it is normal that you don't know, after all, you are just a chief of the Left Jinwu Guard, and you have just been conferred the title of King of Qi. You haven't had time to build a palace yet, so it is normal that you haven't entered the core confidential circle, but...

"Who is it?" he asked.

Gai Hou glanced at him and didn't want to say more.

"Xiu Tu, your uncle has bought a house in Luoyang, you can live there in the future." Gai Hou looked at Zu Daozhong and said, "Your brother-in-law will also come to see you during the New Year's Day."

Although he is called my brother-in-law, they are not actually married yet. They just gave the betrothal gift and Zu agreed.

The "uncle" here is Zu Ti's third brother Zu Ying, who was formerly the military advisor to the General's Office. He is 66 years old this year and is not in good health. An important position in the new dynasty was prepared for him, but he declined.

He was again appointed Palace Attendant and finally accepted it.

This position is a close position appointed by the emperor, with no specific responsibilities, and is actually just an advisor.

The emperor should show favor to his ancestors so that they do not need to be on duty every day.

Therefore, he spent most of his time recuperating in his own home in Luoyang, ignoring state affairs and focusing on contacting and communicating Zu's family affairs - which, at this juncture, were actually also state affairs.

Zu Ying's youngest daughter is only eighteen years old. She had originally intended to marry to Jizhou, but now things have changed. Next year she will marry Shao Gui and become the Princess of Chu.

Their family can be said to have been blessed with luck and came from behind to gain the upper hand, but upon closer examination, it was the three Zu Ti brothers who moved south who ultimately became famous and had value for united front work.

The person who went to contact was Zu Ti's brother-in-law Xu Liu, who had always been Zu Ti's aide.

After Zu Ti's death, he had no official position for a while and was relatively free, so he secretly came to Luoyang.

The Xu siblings were born in the Xu family of Gaoyang.

The eldest brother Xu Xia was originally a minister of the Jin Dynasty. He was forced by Shao Xun to go to Guanzhong, and finally died of "worry and fear" in Lantian.

The second elder brother Xu Shi was "open-minded and generous". He took the initiative to surrender and made contributions during the attack on Hebei. He is now the Yellow Gate Minister (fourth rank).

The third one is Xu Liu.

There were three brothers, one surrendered to Jin Emperor Sima Chi, one surrendered to Shao Xun, and one followed his brother-in-law Zu Ti to the south. It was an extremely standard operation.

After listening to Gai Hou's words, Zu Daozhong nodded.

People around him told him that they were from Youzhou and should be close to people from Youzhou and Jizhou, but he was born in Wu and had no impression of Hebei at all.

His uncle said that his other brothers all held official positions and were under close watch, and he, a young illegitimate son, usually lived in a manor far away from the city and no one cared about him, so it would be better for him to live in Luoyang first. In this way, if something happened in the future, his father would not be left without an heir.

This was the truth, he vaguely understood it, but he didn't understand what "something" was.

But no one told him now, and the King of Qi in front of him was staring at him, making him feel a little uncomfortable.

Xu Liu frowned, took two steps forward, protected Zu Daozhong behind him, bowed deeply, and said, "Gaoyang Xu Liu greets the wise king."

Shao Zhang returned the greeting and said, "Since they are my second brother's relatives, they are my family. Please do as you please."

"The weather is bad and it might snow again. It's best to leave today." Gai Hou looked up at the sky and said.

"General, what you said is very true." Xu Liu looked at the dozen or so followers behind him, including Zu Daozhong, and said, "Pack your bags and set off immediately."

Except for two or three people, the remaining ten or so people all had a strong and vigorous look on their faces. They were all Zu Ti's servants during his lifetime. Most of them were from Youzhou. Among them there were even Jie people with high noses and deep eyes. A few of them were strong and powerful refugees who went south to Jiangdong.

After hearing the order, they remained silent and began to prepare the carriages, pack horses, water, and equipment.

Shao Zhang watched for a long time, secretly comparing them with his own elite soldiers from Nanyang, and was surprised to find that they were equally matched.

The soldiers given by my uncle have all fought in Nanyang and Xiangyang for many years. It seems that the servants of the Zu family have also been in the battlefield many times and are not inferior to them. It's quite interesting.

******
After leaving Bianliang, the group headed towards Xingyang.

On the way, Gai Hou greeted several of Zu's servants. It seemed that they had known each other before. This made a deep impression on Zu Daozhong, and he realized that Zu Daozhong might really be a northerner and his family's assets were all in Youzhou.

"The King of Chu has a fief of 10,000 households, but I don't know where the city is and how many guests it can support?" Xu Liu asked while riding on his horse, his eyes rolling.

In this era, it was very normal to talk about fiefdoms, retainers, and private soldiers, and there was no need to avoid telling others about them. Even the emperor wanted his subjects to bring private soldiers to fight for him, so why hide it?
However, Gaihou was still relatively cautious and only said, "It is said that it is on the left bank of the Nanyang turbulent water, where the Nanyang and Shunyang counties meet, plus the area around Rang County in the northwest of Xinye."

Xu Liu felt relieved and asked again, "There are 10,000 households in the city, but how many households are there?"

Is it true that there are 10,000 households, not one more or one less, exactly 10,000 households? No, there has never been such a thing since ancient times.

In the Former Jin Dynasty, the land of a second-class marquis was sixty-five miles in radius, and the land of a third-class earl was sixty miles in radius. Pei Xiu was granted the title of Jichuan Marquis, a second-class marquis, with Jichuanxu in Gaoyuan County as his marquisate. This place was only sixty miles in radius, which was the standard for a third-class earl, but Jichuanxu happened to be that big. In reality, it was impossible to split the land into other complete areas for you. You had to suffer a loss, so that's all.

Of course, sometimes you can get an advantage, but it's almost the same, there's no such thing as just perfect.

This is still the size of the region. In reality, there are other factors, such as the fertility of the land, the number of disasters, the convenience of transportation, etc. The same "ten thousand households" may have very different actual benefits - this is the transition stage from real fiefdom to virtual fiefdom. In later dynasties in history, it was not necessarily the case. For example, the Qing Dynasty was completely monetized, which meant that the court paid salaries according to your level of title. The title was just a title, and had nothing to do with the corresponding region. There was not even a title, only a level.

The King of Chu's fief was on the west bank of the turbulent water that flowed through Nanyang and Xinye counties. Like Shao Zhang's King of Qi, he enjoyed rent and taxes but had no actual jurisdiction. At most, he sent officials from the royal palace to coordinate with local officials in collecting taxes.

"There are still about five or six thousand households." Gai Hou said, "The natives of Jingzhou and refugees from Guanxi account for about half each."

"Is this the former Nanyang Kingdom?" Xu Liu asked.

"At most three-one." Gai Hou said, "It's actually not easy. The Guanxiwu fortress owner is still very fierce, and the Nanyang natives are also intertwined. They said they were going to fight this year and were unwilling to pay taxes. What are you going to do?"

Xu Liu's heart sank when he heard this. In his opinion, the local nobles were just one of them, and he had not yet considered the huge Nanyang Le family.

What if someone secretly instructs the King of Chu to trip him up?
This king looks like he is in dire straits. Is it necessary to vote for him?
Xu Liu was worried and planned to meet his brother first after going to Luoyang to hear his opinion.

Around the New Year, I should have a chance to visit the King of Chu and see what kind of person he is.

If you have outstanding demeanor and talent, it is worth joining even if there are some difficulties in the early stages.

Seeing that he was silent, Gai Hou said nothing more and led thirty riders to clear the way for protection. The group hurried and arrived at the eastern suburbs of Luoyang on the day of the twelfth lunar month and stayed in Zu Ying's house.

******
There were more than one copper stove in Zu Ying's study, which was warm. Xu Liu even felt a little hot in his cotton clothes.

However, Zu Ying was still tightly wrapped in his thick fur coat, looking weak.

After Gai Hou finished his greetings, he sighed secretly.

Zu Shining was also famous in his time. He was selected as a scholar in Youzhou, but he ignored the offer and refused to take up the position. He continued to study and manage his business at home.

But he could not withstand the ruthless passage of time, and now Zu Shining is very old and is about to die.

But you must get through this winter!
If he could get through it, he would be able to live another year, which would be just the right time to arrange the marriage with the King of Chu.

"Master Ji, how is Jiangnan doing?" Zu Ying asked, inviting everyone to sit down.

"Not so good." Xu Liu sighed, "After my brother-in-law (Zu Ti) passed away, General Shi Shao (Zu Yue) temporarily led the troops. There were only more than 30,000 people scattered in Xu and Yang states. They could not gather without orders. Jianye probably wanted to seize the military power of the Zu family."

"This is inevitable." Zu Ying sighed, "Shi Zhi has been in charge of the army for many years, and the people in Jianye must be worried. Even if I were in Jianye, I would have to submit a petition to carry out this matter. How many people can Shi Shao control?"

"At most half." Xu Liu said, "After all, he is not my brother-in-law."

"Half is already a lot." Zu Ying said, "What is Shi Yan (Zuna) doing recently?"

"Being obsessed with Go is called 'forgetting worries'." Xu Liu said sarcastically.

Zu Ying sighed.

Among the six brothers in the Zu family, he is the third oldest, Zuna is the fourth, Zuti is the fifth, and Zuyue is the sixth.

Zuti and Zuyue are brothers from the same mother, but Zuna does not have the same mother.

Among the three brothers, Zuti and Zuyue were very close, but had a bad relationship with Zuna.

Zu Ti may still pay attention to maintaining friendship within the family, but Zu Yue is not so particular. He has a very bad relationship with Zu Na.

Even Sima Rui and Wang Dao knew about the situation of the three brothers. After realizing that it was indeed difficult for them to reconcile, they chose Zu Ti and Zu Yue and abandoned Zu Na. As a result, Zu Na "lived in seclusion, doing nothing but idle conversation and reading literature and history."

"The whole family has ended up like this." Zu Ying said in a tone of regret: "Shi Zhi is also responsible for this matter. He was too indulgent to Shi Shao."

Xu Liu didn't want to say much about the Zu family affairs, he just listened from the side.

"How does Director Wang plan to deal with Shi Shao?" Zu Ying asked again.

"Liu Kun has already crossed the river to Guangling. It seems that Wang Dao does not want to see General Shi still stationed in the north of the river." Xu Liu said, "This place is too dangerous."

Who said no!
If Zu Yue rebelled, he would reach Jianye as soon as he crossed the river. Who could bear it?

Of course, this does not mean that people in Jianye really think that Zu Yue has rebellious intentions. In fact, this is a normal restriction.

This army was founded by Zu Ti in Huaiyin. After fighting for so many years, everyone in the army respected Zu Ti very much.

Zu Yue joined the army very early, helping his brother and having a certain prestige.

If you were Sima Rui, wouldn't you want to impose some restrictions? Is it reasonable for the position of military commander to be passed down from brother to brother?
However, they were also very aware of the actual situation and were worried about forcing Zu Yue to rebel, so they did not use force. Instead, they adopted a softer approach. They first sent Liu Kun across the river and used his fame and prestige to divide and win over some officers.

The next thing to do is probably to move Zu Yue's troops to another location, away from their old nest in Xuzhou, so as to avoid receiving widespread support in the event of a real rebellion.

In the end, Zu Yue was probably summoned to Jianye to be an official, promoted to a high position, and his military power was completely taken away.

The whole process takes a long time and effort, and requires a lot of benefits and rewards, but it is relatively safe. If it were someone else, such as Liangzi, he might not do it this way, but would just do it in one step...

"What does the young master say?" Zu Ying looked at Xu Liu and asked.

"General Shi Shao said that Sima Rui is unkind, so don't blame him for being unjust. This is his brother's legacy, and he would never want to give it to others. If the emperor of Daliang dares to accept it, he will dare to surrender." Xu Liu said, "I am willing to be the vanguard and attack Jianye directly."

"That's reckless." Zu Ying said, "As far as I know, your majesty still wants to deal with Xiliang first. Jiangbei has more than just Shi Shao's army. If he rebels now and no one supports him, his fate will be worrying."

"What should we do then?" Xu Liu became anxious when he heard it.

"I don't think Sima Rui and Wang Dao will have time to take care of Shi Shao for a while." Zu Ying shook his head and said, "He only needs to fight Liu Kun now."

Xu Liu seemed to understand something.

It has been several dozen days since the Jin-Liang transition. Such a major event would spread quickly, and the people in Jianye should have known about it.

So what will they do?
Obviously, with the advice of his colleagues, Sima Rui, who had been "regent" for many years, ascended the throne and became emperor.

The Great Jin Dynasty is alive again!

(End of this chapter)