Volume 3: The Land of Jingchu Chapter 371 Ceremony
Cao Bang wanted to finish writing the final script before leaving. Although Bai Tu was worried about his safety, he had no choice but to refuse Cao Bang's self-recommendation.
"The Legend of Zhou" should be a long series. Zhou Bo's greatest achievement was pacifying the Lü clan, but he did not start his career with that. He was originally a founding hero of the Western Han Dynasty.
Zhou Bo was a fellow townsman of Liu Bang and was one of the people who initially followed him to fight against Qin. However, when Liu Bang first became emperor, he was not ranked too high among the founding heroes.
Fortunately, he was not ranked too high and was only granted the title of marquis, which ultimately saved him from being "falsely accused" to death and forced to flee.
After Liu Bang's death, Zhou Bo and Chen Ping, the only ones left, had already become the white jade pillars supporting the sky and the purple gold beams bridging the sea among the founding heroes. It was these two who preserved the dignity of the royal family in the court during the dictatorship of Empress Lu, and after Empress Lu's death, they planned to eliminate the Lü clan and support Emperor Wen.
Therefore, the first act should be "Anti-Qin", the second act should be "The Chu-Han Contention", the third act should be "Suppressing the Lü clan", and the fourth act... should be "How do you know the value of prison officials?"
Since it is a comedy, there is more room for creativity, and Zhou Bo's early experiences can be portrayed in a more heart-wrenching way to highlight the helplessness in the final scene of "How can I know the value of a jailer?"
Cao Bang also planned to find Wang Lang again when the time comes to learn from him and find the focus - she did not want to slander the jailers, but to portray the jailers under the old laws and regulations as evil spirits, in sharp contrast to the "benevolent" jailers after the reform of the criminal law .
Cao Bang even thought that in order to be more in line with the facts, he could write a scene where Zhou Bo rode alone for thousands of miles to escort the imperial seal back to Hanzhong, which would make it easier for the audience to associate...
There is a sequel about Zhou Yafu, and Zhou Jiande as a "behind the scenes". Cao Bang thinks that after Zhou Jiande wins the title by drinking gold, Bai Tu and her uncle Cao Cao can present gold to the court in a high-profile manner to suit the occasion.
This is Cao Bang’s realm – when writing the script, he has already thought about how to carry out targeted “promotion and marketing” off the field.
The only thing that made Bai Tu regretful was that Cao Bang was about to go home...
The fifteenth day of the first lunar month arrived with the common anticipation of the north and the south. Liu Xie was busy offering sacrifices to the Taiyi God early in the morning and commemorating the pacification of the Zhu Lu in the afternoon.
These were all Liu Xie's own pleasure, not up to the level of "making all the people aware of it". Given the current situation of the Han Dynasty, it was impossible to force the making of all the people aware of it just for "momentary pleasure".
Just when Liu Xie waited for the auspicious time and was preparing to offer sacrifices to the Taiyi God, he saw a golden light in the sky - all the messengers were informed and took action!
Liu Xie was stunned at first, thinking that his sacrificial act really triggered the news automatically.
However, before he could get excited or nervous, he immediately saw a figure in the golden light that was not his own, and... there was also a towering platform, surrounded by dense flags, and below were civil and military officials. The momentum was even more grand than the sacrificial scene of the Chang'an court!
The leader, although older than Liu Xie, was still young. His attire was particularly eye-catching to Liu Xie—although it was not the emperor's crown, it was also the gorgeous robe of a prince...
Bai Tu actually didn't want to dress so complicatedly, but in the end he still couldn't beat Kong Rong.
Fortunately, in the world of Cheng Ji, people generally don’t pay much attention to clothing, and only during sacrificial activities do they do such unnecessary things.
On the side was Kong Rong, who also overcame ancient rituals and was dressed in scholar-official attire, reading the sacrificial text. The first 10% of the text was used to praise the Han Dynasty, and mainly praised the Han Dynasty for knowing people and appointing them to the right posts and granting Bai Tu the Nine Gifts. The middle 30% described how miserable the people were since the Yellow Turban Rebellion. The next 30% described how Bai Tu became the governor of Yangzhou and was conferred the title of King of Chu. As he gradually gained a firm foothold, the people under his rule gradually lived and worked in peace and contentment. The last 30% of the text was used to look forward to the future, and the lives of the people of Chu would be even better...
In short, it reaffirms Bai Tu's achievements and the fact that he was canonized and granted the Nine Gifts by the Han Dynasty, indicating that Bai Tu was humble because he did not name the country Chu before, and now he named the country Chu in order to better implement the principle of "the benevolent love others."
After a long speech that made Liu Xie feel a little nauseous, it was Bai Tu's turn to officially announce...
However, after Bai Tu stepped onto the platform, he did not immediately announce the establishment of a country.
"Today, the State of Chu is established with the intention of promoting righteousness, protecting the people, and saving the country. As the King of Chu, I have specially formulated the Eight Strategies for the State of Chu. If anyone violates these Strategies in the future, the gods and the people will punish him. I hope all the people will learn from this!"
After Bai Tu spoke, not only the people from other places, but even some of the Chu civil and military officials who were unaware of the situation were a little confused.
Liu Xie curled his lips, guessing in his heart that it might be a national policy similar to the "White Horse Alliance" - after Liu Bang proclaimed himself emperor and killed most of the kings of other surnames, he made an oath with the princes by killing a white horse, which is the famous sentence "Whoever becomes king except the Liu family will be attacked by the whole world."
At this time, there are not a few people who make such a guess.
Moreover... Liu Bang's White Horse Alliance only said "No one other than the Liu family can be king", but you want to talk about the Eight Strategies? How cruel!
At the same time, Liu Xie was vaguely familiar with the number "eight", but that possibility had been ruled out from the beginning - after all, in his opinion, Bai Tu's previous condition of "removing the Marquis of Chu" was simply intended to humiliate him and had no feasibility at all.
Liu Bei was the only one in Chang'an who was shocked and stared at Bai Tu's figure...
"First, a benevolent person loves others. The Chu State was established for the sake of people. If you go against this policy, you will have no regrets even if your country is destroyed and you die!"
Liu Xie.pout.jpg: That’s it?
He shouted a slogan. Tsk, was it to replace the previous slogan "support the Han Dynasty"? Liu Xie felt more and more annoyed the more he thought about it.
This was indeed the core slogan and core spirit of the General's Mansion, in addition to "supporting the Han Dynasty". However, because it was too core, it seemed too general, and it was just comfortable to hear, but not exciting...
"Second, we select people based on their talents. Since the founding of our country, we have selected talented people and given them a test every three years. I hope that all the scholars in the world will have a chance to serve our country!"
Liu Xie: ???
Liu Xie instinctively showed a look of surprise... Not to mention Liu Xie, there would be very few people who would not be surprised when they heard the vision of "all the scholars and common people in the world have a way to serve the country"!
Even in Yangzhou, only those areas that have adapted to the Talent Recruitment Hall and Talent Selection Examination can take this statement calmly.
Especially in Jingzhou, it actually caused a lot of anxiety among the nobles - this was also within Bai Tu's expectations, so he asked all counties and prefectures to copy the court bulletins today and annotate Bai Tu's speech!
It was emphasized that the "Cao Ju" and "Imperial Examination" were still carried out in parallel. In this way, even if there was unrest, the gentry still had a great advantage, and even the Jiangdong gentry had already adapted to it imperceptibly. Such unrest could be slowly alleviated instead of causing fierce confrontation.
Of course, if something really happens, the current Baitu is not in vain. After all, Yangzhou’s base has been secured. If Jingzhou dares to cause chaos, then we will put it down!
However, several people in Chang'an, including Liu Xie, have already thought of the "Eight Strategies" that were originally sent to Chang'an. Those who know the situation are staring at Bai Tu's figure even more intently...
