Chapter 345: Persuade or Not
Before Chen Qun arrived in Chang'an, the news that Huainan was about to establish a new court had already reached Zhong Yao.

Zhong Yao found the situation quite difficult, so he immediately reported the news and went to see Wei Duan, the governor of Liangzhou.

At present, the high-end official positions controlled by Guanzhong include the Grand Marshal and below, including the Inspector of the Sili Army and the Governor of Liangzhou. In fact, Yongzhou, which was separated from Guanzhong and Liangzhou, and Bingzhou are also in the Guanzhong system.

In particular, Yongzhou was a mixture of Sizhou and Liangzhou. When Yongzhou was established, Guanzhong was basically torn apart.

But in general, there are four states in Guanzhong, namely Sizhou, Yongzhou, Liangzhou and Bingzhou.

With the chief officials of the four states, plus the unanimous persuasion of the Xiongnu Chanyu, the Xianbei King, the Qiang King, the city-states in the Western Regions, and the nomadic states, the momentum of establishing a country with the title of Grand Sima would not be weaker than that of Huainan.

Although there is no recognized Qiang King at present, if the situation requires, the Grand Marshal will designate someone to be the Qiang King. Considering the large number of Xiongnu and Xianbei heads, the various Qiang tribes will probably recognize this Qiang King.

Since the beginning of spring, merchants and envoys from city-states and foreign countries in the Western Regions have already arrived in Guanzhong. The merchant teams sent by Guanzhong have also made a circle and will be back before the winter snow falls.

Originally, there were some concerns that the caravans and envoys would be robbed and killed by other countries, but now the news of the Battle of Hexi is spreading rapidly to the Western Regions.

If the rulers of these city-states and nomadic countries do not want to die, they should treat them with courtesy and send the caravans and envoys out of the country with courtesy.

In this case, if the Grand Marshal were to ascend to the throne, who among the Western Regions would dare to object?
After all, in addition to the king, these city-states and kingdoms also have prime ministers, crown princes, royal brothers, generals and the like, and these kings are not irreplaceable.

Facing Zhong Yao's proposal, Wei Duan thought for a moment and then refused: "Based on my understanding of the Grand Marshal, he will not accept our proposal at this moment. When the State of Chen was destroyed, the Grand Marshal did not trust the civil and military officials. If we persuade him to ascend the throne now, wouldn't that cut him off from the soldiers?"

Zhong Yao's face was calm and he said confidently, "As the Grand Marshal, you shouldn't have close contact with the common people and the army. Now every household can submit a petition, and many people are illiterate. Isn't it ridiculous to report on the news?"

Seeing Zhong Yao like this, Wei Duan was even more speechless. He stood up and went to the study to find an official document and handed it to Zhong Yao: "This is the document that the Grand Marshal's Office handed over to our state a month ago. Our state has also sent a letter to the counties in Liangzhou."

The Liangzhou provincial headquarters was originally located in Tianshui. After Wei Duan brought the core members of the provincial governor to Guanzhong, the entire provincial headquarters was moved to Chang'an and became a branch of the Grand Marshal's Office.

All official documents regarding Liangzhou were forwarded to the provincial government, which then sent them to the various counties.

Originally, only Tianshui County was obedient, but now that the Hu tribes in Hexi have been destroyed and the Xianbei have been badly damaged, official documents from the state can now be smoothly transmitted to Jincheng.

As for the four counties of Wuwei, Zhangye, Dunhuang and Jiuquan, it will take some time.

But Zhang Xiu followed the army and was very likely to be settled in the four counties of Hexi after the war. If the Hehuang Qiang tribes were dealt a heavy blow in the winter, Liangzhou would basically be conquered without a fight.

After taking control of the counties and prefectures, the Han local tyrants and the mixed Hu tribes within were also easily dealt with.

The main reason why Liangzhou is difficult to deal with is the border troubles. If you deal with the administration and internal affairs, these people will create border troubles.

After the Xiongnu, Xianbei, and Hehuang Qiang were beaten up one by one, the unstable factors within Liangzhou dared to resist. There was no need for the counties to join forces to suppress them. It was only necessary to instigate the main force of the Hu people to cross the border and eliminate the hidden dangers within Liangzhou, even killing the entire family to eradicate the roots.

Wei Duan was from Guanzhong and he was very clear about the problems in Liangzhou.

Therefore, in his eyes, Liangzhou was only a matter of time away from great governance, and it was just a matter of time before it could develop naturally.

Wei Duan simply found Zhong Yao's current mentality difficult to understand.

Zhong Yao flipped through Wei Duan's official document. It was a very simple document, which was a message to the counties and prefectures of Liangzhou, ordering the counties and prefectures to send several county officials and knights to Hexi to accept questioning from the Grand Marshal after receiving the message.

Zhong Yao looked heavy-hearted after reading it. His Sili Xiaowei office had long been an empty shell. Although the officials inside had not resigned, the Grand Marshal's Office made no arrangements for them and did not pay their salaries.

That is, when allocating official fields, their official positions were recognized, and official fields corresponding to their official positions were allocated, and they were sent to participate in spring ploughing.

As for the counties under the jurisdiction of Sizhou, they were all directly managed by the Grand Marshal's Office, without the need for the Sili Xiaowei Office to do any transfer. Therefore, Zhong Yao usually had no official duties to speak of, but the officials in the Sili Xiaowei Office were relatively united.

If they quit now, they won't have any good options.

For the vast majority of middle and grassroots officials, your loyalty and integrity are even more important; if you can follow Zhong Yao like this and never leave him, after the Sili Xiaowei Yamen is disbanded, these officials will naturally be favored by the heads of other Yamen.

So just because these people currently have nothing to do and no way out, it doesn’t mean that there won’t be good options in the future.

If I jump ship now, no one will like this selfish and disloyal subordinate.

In this environment, Zhong Yao naturally wanted to take on some tasks; only when he was doing things did he feel a sense of existence.

But that Grand Sima was too capable, and many people in the shogunate could not interfere in many matters, let alone those outside the shogunate.

But as long as Black Bear's status is promoted from Grand Marshal to a king or an emperor, the layers of rules and the huge difference in status will force Black Bear to hand in a lot of work.

Zhong Yao was sincere in persuading the emperor to ascend the throne.

His feelings were extremely sincere at this moment, and he eagerly hoped that Black Bear could go a step further.

In this way, a large number of official positions can be added, and many of the bad battles and old affairs of the past will naturally fade away, and the troubles in the offices of Zhong Yao and the Inspector of the Imperial Guard will no longer be a big deal.

Unfortunately, even though the front line was busy with military affairs, the Grand Marshal still arranged time to meet with envoys from various counties in Liangzhou, in order to understand the actual situation at the grassroots level in Liangzhou through these people.

Faced with such a Grand Marshal, who would dare to persuade him to ascend the throne? Wouldn't that be tantamount to closing off the Grand Marshal's eyes and ears?

The most terrifying thing is that Da Sima may have already realized this problem.

If you persuade him to ascend the throne, you are intentionally covering up the eyes and ears of the Grand Marshal; but if you don't persuade him to ascend the throne, especially when Huainan is about to be crowned, isn't there something wrong with your attitude and position?

Taking all these into consideration, Zhong Yao made his own choice, which was to go all out to persuade the emperor to ascend the throne and to be the first one to do so.

With his qualifications, he naturally has the ability to do so.

But Wei Duan's official document dealt him a heavy blow.

If you do not persuade him to ascend the throne now, perhaps you will not die; but if you really try to persuade him to ascend the throne, even if the canonical punishment is not known, you will be secretly executed.

It is very reasonable that Zhong Yao, the Inspector of the Imperial Guards, who was in his fifties, suddenly died of illness during this chaotic time.

It is estimated that the clerks in the office of the Inspector of the Imperial Capital would also be happy to see this scene, as it would free them up and allow them to apply for jobs in other government offices as loyal officials and men of integrity.

Seeing Zhong Yao in a daze, Wei Duan said, "We can discuss the matter of persuading the emperor to ascend the throne, but we cannot discuss it in depth. Condescending to be loyal is the duty of a minister. The Grand Marshal is now able to bring peace to the people at home and punish the barbarians abroad, which shows that the Grand Marshal is right. Anyone who speaks out against him is wrong."

Zhong Yao listened quietly, but he was still unwilling to give in.

Seeing Zhong Yao's expression, Wei Duan said, "I have said all I can and will not say it again. I just hope that after Lord Yuan Chang leaves, the two families will not have any more contact. I don't even ask about the affairs of Liangzhou. With Lord Yuan Chang's advanced age, why can't he let go of this little bit of fame? When the Grand Marshal takes over the country, you and I will be nobles according to our seniority. Why do you want to put yourself in a desperate situation and implicate others?"

"Ah."

Zhong Yao managed a reluctant response, then stood up with a wooden face, flicked his sleeves and walked away.

(End of this chapter)