Chapter 489: Night Plan
The crescent moon hung in the sky like a hook. Kong Rong put on a sheepskin coat over his shoulders, walked out of the house, and looked up at the brilliant Milky Way.

The night wind was cold and he clasped his hands across his chest.

Behind him, Xu Gan and Bing Yuan walked out together. Xu Gan still had a bitter face, and his brows were more worried than before.

Bing Yuan took a step closer and whispered, "The banquet is a great opportunity. There are definitely many people who want to persuade him to take the throne and seek the first merit. You must not fall behind."

Kong Rong was silent. Xu Gan, who shared Kong Rong's thoughts, hesitated and said, "If the Grand Marshal wanted to be king, why did he wait until today? With his great achievements in defeating the Xiongnu and subduing the Huns, if he wanted to be king, everyone in the country would be convinced and there would be no objection. But the Grand Marshal is unwilling to do so, and now Liu Ba is forcing him to do so. You should not follow the advice of others and wait and see."

Bing Yuan turned his head and glared at the people, shouting in a low voice: "The country is without a master now. If you continue to refuse the position of Grand Marshal with your meritorious service and good governance, it will harm the world! How can you ignore the people's expectations for your own selfish reasons?"

Xu Gan was not afraid of Bing Yuan, and he bowed to Yekong Tianhe: "The Grand Marshal refused, and the people were strong-willed. Do you want to follow the old path of Cui Zhouping? Liu Ba has been secretly executed. With Ming Gong's prestige, once he persuades you to take the throne, you will definitely be second only to the two ministers, and you will definitely be hated by the Grand Marshal."

When it comes to things like persuading someone to ascend the throne, one must first look at the official positions of those who proposed the idea in the Han Empire. Liu Ai and Zhong Yao, who currently hold the title of Shizhong, can represent the collective of the late emperor's courtiers and attendants.

Kong Rong was well-known throughout the country and had served as a minister. In the list of people recommending the emperor to take the throne, he must have been ranked third.

The fourth one is King of Ba, Liu Mao; the fifth one is Wei Duan, the governor of Liangzhou; and the sixth one is Pei Mao, the Shangshu Pushe and Marquis of Ting.

The seventh and eighth are Chanyu Liu Bao and Xianbei King Budugen. These two people do not need to communicate with each other and will naturally wait for an opportunity to act.

Ninth is General Du Liao Ma Teng, tenth is General Fu Bo Liu Qi, eleventh is Tianshui County Prefect Liu Ye, Gan Ning can barely be ranked in the top 20, Yang Qiu and Duan Wei are ranked before Gan Ning.

As for people like Sanfu Duwei and Sijin Duwei, they barely made it into the top 50 and could be listed on the form for persuading the emperor to ascend the throne, without being omitted with "etc.".

In addition to those who held provincial and county officials, generals, lieutenants and colonels, there were also some unemployed people with noble titles who participated in persuading the emperor to ascend the throne.

These people lived in Guanzhong and represented the descendants of the nobles of the Later Han Dynasty and were also the representatives of people's respect throughout the world.

Seeing Xu Gan's tough attitude, Bing Yuan turned to Kong Rong and said, "If you are unwilling to speak up for justice, you will lose the hope of the world."

The appearance of the Qinghua guards during the day caused collective shock among the scholars.

If they continue to sit back and do nothing, waiting for the right price, by the time more batches of Qinghua Guards grow up, where will they get a chance?

Especially for scholars who have just undergone the coming-of-age ceremony, they hardly meet the requirements for selection and joining the Qinghua Guards.

This is much more cruel than Emperor Ling's Hongdu School. The Hongdu School teaches everyone, and you can be admitted if you have a skill.

If appreciated by Emperor Ling, he would be immediately appointed as a governor or head of a county.

But now, the seriousness, orderliness and large numbers shown by the Qinghua guards cannot be easily suppressed.

Restraining the powerful was the political correctness of public opinion during the Han Dynasty. Another political correctness was advocating military merit. The last one that could barely be considered politically correct was the regency of foreign relatives.

The legal basis for the regency of relatives by marriage is filial piety. Without the relevant authorization of the Empress Dowager or the Grand Empress Dowager, relatives by marriage cannot monopolize power.

Judging from the Grand Marshal's ability to command troops, the next time a war breaks out, even if he only leads the Qinghua Guards who have never experienced war, the military qualities demonstrated by the Qinghua Guards today will be enough to scare the mob so that they dare not fight.

Not to mention the mob, even many scholars of the older generation who had experienced the ups and downs of turbulent times were frightened by the Qinghua guards.

The origin of the Huben Imperial Guards was Emperor Wu's Qimen Lang. The daily training of this army was very strict, but its size was always kept below two thousand people.

However, the Qinghua Guards are divided into two batches a year, each batch has 3,000 people, and this autumn the number has skyrocketed to 5,000.

The training is strict behind closed doors and they are not affected by the outside world. Given the age of the Qinghua guards, they will inevitably receive education related to the Taiping Dao culture.

Ideologically speaking, they are not the Qinghua Guards at all; they are clearly the Yellow Turban warriors and the Taiping Taoists.

In another three to five years, when this group of Qinghua guards who have gained military merit have grown up, Chang'an University will become a mere decoration.

While the influence is still there, we should immediately participate in persuading people to follow suit.

To be fair, considering his achievements, no one would question him even if he became king now.

Kong Rong thought about it again and again, and thought of the Royal Chrysanthemum Wine. He wanted to drink it for a few more years.

He slowly turned around and looked at Bing Yuan: "The Grand Marshal has great talent. He must have a reason for not wanting to be king. We are forcing him. Given the Grand Marshal's temperament, this matter will never end well." Seeing Kong Rong's clear opposition, Bing Yuan sighed: "Ming Gong has stepped aside. Can you bear to lose your dignity? Today, the appearance of the Qinghua Guards has shocked all parties. When they grow up, we will lose our dignity."

After the Qinghua Guards arrived, they entered the camp to rest. After taking off their leather helmets, they all wrapped their heads with yellow or green scarves. There was no need to elaborate on what was underneath the scarves, as they must have had short hair like the Grand Marshal.

Whether to wear a headscarf or tie up your hair and wear a crown in the future is a huge disagreement, it's simply an issue of either you or me.

Seeing Bing Yuan's sad look, Kong Rong thought of a story he had heard. He smiled and said to Xu Gan, "My scalp is itchy."

Xu Gan was also stunned. He had also heard of such stories. Some officials who joined the shogunate were initially embarrassed to shave their heads, so they found this excuse to shave or cut their hair.

Influenced by these people, Xu Gan also had his hair trimmed short and neatly, which really made his daily life more convenient.

Bing Yuanze stared at Kong Rong in astonishment, raised his hand and pointed at Kong Rong for a moment, his arms shaking, perhaps out of anger or something.

After two or three breaths, Bing Yuan withdrew his arm, turned around abruptly, swung his sleeves, and left angrily.

Looking at the direction where Bing Yuan left, Kong Rong restrained his smile and said, "Do you think he will flee to the southeast after the banquet?"

Xu Gan shook his head and said in a low voice: "The Southeastern Pseudo-Dynasty and Cao Cao are seemingly in harmony but actually at odds with each other, and they are also closely related. How could they advocate for the people of Qingzhou?"

Although he was not a school clerk under Kong Rong, he also did clerical work, had a name card in the shogunate, received an annual salary of 200 koku, and had 200 acres of official land under his name.

When the official rank decree is officially released, he can also accumulate merits and be promoted step by step.

Judging from the current development momentum of the shogunate, Xu Gan is only half a step away from being transferred to a county magistrate and may be demoted at any time.

With Kong Rong around, after being exiled for three to five years, he could be recruited into the shogunate and serve as the chief or assistant official of various departments. If he was exiled again, he would most likely become the magistrate of a large county in Guanzhong, or the governor of a small county.

There were not many positions under the shogunate system, and there were not many institutions to accommodate idle people, so there were few links for promotion based on merit.

Therefore, the later one becomes king or emperor, the fewer obstacles there are for promotion in the middle and lower levels of the shogunate.

They will be promoted step by step, and only when the grassroots officials are gradually promoted to replace the county heads who have been retained will the system be considered truly stable.

Small county officials can also accumulate merits, but what platform do you have?
How can we compare with the petty officials in the shogunate who are busy with trivial matters on weekdays and accumulate merits quickly?
According to the Han system, a county had no more than a hundred salaried officials, and a county government had no more than twenty officials, or at most thirty or so.

The same is true for state departments, the number of which is similar to that of county governments; after all, state departments were originally established for the purpose of inspection.

Therefore, the state and county only need to issue instructions to the county, and the county is responsible for execution.

If the county resists and refuses to execute the order, you can only follow procedures or use violence to replace the county magistrate. The order can only be executed after the new county magistrate reorganizes the county government.

However, the county officials were mostly local powerful people and scholars from humble families. If they issued orders that seriously harmed local interests, if these people resisted, the county magistrate would be imprisoned or expelled at best, or killed by assassins or bandits in more serious cases.

From the perspective of Xu Gan's personal development, if he maintained the shogunate system and was taken care of by Kong Rong, he would definitely be a senior official when he returned to the shogunate five years later. Perhaps he could do so in three years, and would definitely be a senior official in a county within seven or eight years.

When the Xin Dynasty was established, Xu Gan had the potential to become an official with his qualifications.

Under the official title system, if one could safely gain a public office, he would at least be given a title of Marquis after retirement.

Based on his personal understanding, he knew that unless he had a good daughter, there was no hope of becoming a marquis in this life.

Not to mention a Tinghou with a fief of three to five hundred households, even a Guanneihou with a fief of one to two hundred households is impossible.

From a personal perspective, the signs of world unification are becoming increasingly clear, and there is no need to take any more risks at this time.

Kong Rong had clearly already sat down to eat, so was there any need for him to follow Bing Yuan, Wang Can and others to cause trouble?

The experience in the turbulent times made Xu Gan depressed and pessimistic, and his behavior tended to be conservative.

He didn't want to experience any more sorrow.

(End of this chapter)