Chapter 402 I, Liu Bei, ascend the throne and proclaim myself emperor. I rule the world, confer titles on my ministers, and return to the old capital!

"Seizing Jingzhou is your only hope to support the Han Dynasty!"

In Liu Bei's mind, he recalled what Xiao Fang had said to him when they first met.

At that time, when he first heard this fantastic strategy, he just laughed it off.

Even though they later lost Xuzhou and had to travel thousands of miles to Jingzhou, they did so with the determination to burn their boats and try their best.

Who would have thought.

That young man from a poor family, with his unfathomable wisdom, helped him turn the impossible into possible.

He took Nanyang, seized Jingzhou, conquered Jiangdong, destroyed Yuan Shu, and killed Lu Bu...

Until we advance into the Central Plains, wipe out the Yuan family, flatten Hebei, and control nine of the Thirteen States in the world!

Until today, he has ascended to the supreme throne and rules the world!

Everything that happened yesterday seemed like a dream.

At this moment, Liu Bei suddenly had a feeling in his heart:
It was as if the ancestors of the Han Dynasty were protecting him in the dark.

And the Xiao Fang in front of him was the immortal sent down by the ancestors from heaven, just to help him realize the great cause of reviving the Han Dynasty!

"Your Majesty, the auspicious time is approaching. It is time to worship heaven and earth."

Seeing that Liu Bei was in a trance, Xiao Fang reminded him softly.

Liu Bei then returned to the present moment. He took a deep breath, suppressed his surging emotions, and nodded slightly.

Xiao Fang then signaled to Zhuge Liang with his eyes.

Zhuge Liang then unfolded the scroll in his hand, faced the sky, and read out the text of Liu Bei's ascension to the throne and his enthronement as emperor.

Then, Pang Tong held the imperial sword, which symbolized the emperor, in both hands and handed it to Liu Bei.

Xiao Fang presented the imperial seal to Liu Bei with both hands.

Liu Bei held the sword in one hand and took the imperial seal in the other.

He originally thought that the jade seal was the newly made imperial seal, but when he held it in his hand and glanced at it inadvertently, his face suddenly changed in shock.

"The Imperial Seal?"

Endless surprise surged on Liu Bei's face. He suddenly looked up and looked at Xiao Fang.

This is really a pleasant surprise.

Of course he knew that Sun Ce had presented the imperial seal left by Sun Jian to Yuan Shu in order to win back the Sun family's followers.

After Yuan Shu's death, the imperial seal fell into the hands of Lu Bu again.

After the fall of Shouchun City and the defeat of Lu Bu, Liu Bei sent people to search for the imperial seal but did not find it and it disappeared since then.

From then on, the imperial seal seemed to have disappeared from the face of the earth.

Later, Liu Bei guessed that most likely during the chaos when Shouchun City was captured, the imperial seal was taken away by some minor figure, or hidden away, or left in the wilderness.

The world is so big that finding a lost small seal is as difficult as looking for a needle in a haystack.

Liu Bei gave up the idea and did not continue to pursue the imperial seal.

However, he never expected that the imperial seal, which had disappeared in Shouchun for many years, would appear at his coronation ceremony!
It was presented to him by Xiao Fang and became the jade seal of the new emperor of the Han Dynasty!

"Jinglue, this..."

Liu Bei was so surprised that he didn't know what to say.

Xiao Fang smiled and glanced at Zhang Fei.

After hiding the truth from Lao Liu for so many years, it is time for Zhang Fei to come forward and confess, taking the blame.

"To be honest, Your Majesty, when we captured Shouchun, my subordinates found this imperial seal."

"I originally wanted to present it to Your Majesty, but I changed my mind. Given Your Majesty's personality, if you get such a treasure, you will definitely send it to Xuchang to Liu Xie, which will only benefit Cao Cao."

"I thought that Your Majesty would become the emperor sooner or later and would definitely need this thing, so I simply kept it for myself and waited to present it to Your Majesty when Your Majesty ascended the throne today."

"I didn't expect that I would be kept waiting for this, hehe~~"

Zhang Fei scratched the back of his head and told the truth with a silly smile.

Xiao Fang couldn't help but secretly praise Zhang Fei for his kindness. He really took all the blame on himself and didn't expose himself as the "mastermind behind the scenes".

Liu Bei suddenly realized, looked at Xiao Fang, then at Guan Yu, and couldn't help but smile bitterly.

He was naturally aware of his brother's character. How could Zhang Fei, who was so straightforward, hide such a big secret?

And you kept it a secret for so many years?
Could he still have the foresight to consider that one day he would rule the world when he conquered Shouchun?

Of course not.

There is no need to think about it, this was most likely Xiao Fang's idea, and his second brother Guan Yu was probably also involved.

With Liu Bei's magnanimity, he naturally would not blame them even if he knew that they had concealed the truth from him.

What's more, the three of them secretly kept the imperial seal for their own benefit, so it was impossible for Liu Bei to blame them.

"It's really hard for you to keep it a secret for so many years, Yide."

Liu Bei just laughed and sighed, then passed the matter over.

Then he lowered his head and looked at the seal carefully.

When I saw the eight words "Mandated by Heaven, and blessed with eternal prosperity", my heart suddenly became turbulent again.

"I am appointed by Heaven, I am appointed by Heaven..."

Liu Bei murmured to himself, as if thinking about something.

At this time, Xiao Fang had straightened his clothes and bowed to Liu Bei:
"Your servant Xiao Fang bows to His Majesty the Emperor of the Han Dynasty!"

"Congratulations to your Majesty for inheriting the throne and ruling the world!"

"Long live the emperor, long live the emperor, long, long live the emperor—"

Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and all the soldiers on the altar immediately knelt down and shouted "Long live the emperor".

Liu Bei's heart trembled and his thoughts returned to reality.

He held the imperial seal in his hand, leaned on his sword and turned around, looking down from a high position, overlooking the civil and military officials and the 100,000 soldiers under the altar. The aura of a domineering and heroic emperor who ruled the world was burning wildly.

Under the altar.

Mi Zhu, Huang Zhong, Taishi Ci, Zhao Yun, Gan Ning, Chen Deng, Tian Feng, Zhang He and other ministers were all in awe among the 100,000 soldiers and officers who were watching the ceremony.

All the ministers and soldiers bowed down in reverence.

"Congratulations to your Majesty for inheriting the throne and ruling the world!"

"Long live the emperor, long live the emperor, long, long live the emperor—"

The earth-shattering and sky-shattering shouts of "Long live the emperor" rang out like thunder, filling the space between heaven and earth.

Liu Bei stood on a high platform, looking down at his ministers who were cheering "Long live the emperor", and his heart was filled with great pride.

I, Liu Bei, am a poor scholar, despised by all the princes as a mat weaver and shoe seller, and treated as a worthless person.

Who would have thought that one day he would be able to ascend to the throne and rule the world!
Yuan Shao, Lu Bu, Sun Ce, Yuan Shu, Liu Biao...

All of you who once looked down on me and treated me as worthless, but none of you can escape the knife in my hand.

At this moment, you can only die with hatred in your grave, look up at the world with resentment, and watch me ascend the throne and become emperor with gnashing teeth!
All the people in the nine provinces and four seas have bowed their heads at his feet.

It turns out that this is what it feels like to be an emperor!

Liu Bei smiled.

...

It was early summer.

The King of Chu of the Han Dynasty issued an edict in Yecheng to all directions, announcing that he would inherit the Han throne and ascend the throne to be emperor.

The country was named Da Han, and the era name was changed to the first year of Zhangwu.

On the day of his accession to the throne, Liu Bei issued an edict to appoint Queen Su as empress, his eldest son Liu Chen as crown prince of Han, his second son Liu Chan as Prince of Qi, and his third son Liu Yu as Prince of Song.

Next, he conferred titles on his ministers.

Prime Minister Xiao Fang was promoted to Prime Minister of the Han Dynasty, in charge of all civil and military officials of the Han Dynasty.

Zhuge Liang was appointed as the Chancellor.

Guan Yu was appointed as the general, Zhang Fei as the general of cavalry, Zhang Xiu as the general of chariots and cavalry, and Huang Zhong as the general of guards.

Chen Dao was appointed as the central commander, Zhao Yun as the central guard general, and Xu Chu as the central supervisor.

The rest of the generals, including Wei Yan, Xu Sheng, Gan Ning, Wen Pin, Zhang Liao, Liu Pi, Su Fei, Gong Du, Taishi Ci, Ling Cao, Ling Tong, Li Tong, Gao Shun, Zhang Yan, Zhang He, Guan Ping, Ding Feng, Zhou Cang, Liao Hua, etc., were all promoted according to their merits and qualifications.

Mi Zhu, Sun Qian, Jian Yong, Pang Tong, Xu Shu, Lu Xun, Lu Su, Chen Deng, Tian Feng, Deng Zhi and other civil officials were also promoted according to their merits and qualifications, ranging from the Three Dukes to the Nine Ministers, as well as the Governor of a state.

He bestowed titles upon his ministers, rewarded the army, and issued a general amnesty!

Then, the capital was moved to Luoyang.

According to Xiao Fang's advice, since Liu Bei inherited the Han Dynasty and the country's name was still the Great Han, he naturally had to return to the old capital to show the people of the world that this was the orthodox position.

Of the two capitals of the Han Dynasty, the Western Capital Chang'an had been occupied by Cao Cao, so Liu Bei naturally had to move the capital back to Luoyang.

Although the palaces in Luoyang were burned down when Dong Zhuo moved the capital to Chang'an, palaces had been built intermittently over the past decade or so, including when Cao Cao occupied Luoyang.

So far, although the Luoyang Palace City is not as complete as Yecheng or even Xuchang, it is barely adequate.

Following Xiao Fang's advice, Liu Bei made some repairs to the existing palaces in Luoyang, while trying not to build any new buildings. Then he led all the civil and military officials, empresses, and princes back to Luoyang.

At the same time, in order to ensure control over Hebei and Jiangnan, Liu Bei also implemented the "Three Capitals System" under the advice of Xiao Fang.

Yecheng and Jinling were both upgraded to secondary capitals in order to strengthen the Han court's control over the north and south.

At the same time, hundreds of thousands of soldiers from all over the Han Empire's domestic and foreign armies also began to change their flags and drums one after another.

The former "Chu" flag thus became history, and all the armies in the Nine Provinces, both at home and abroad, changed back to the "Han" flag.

From now on, the Chu Army was renamed the Han Army.

Imperial edicts were issued from Yecheng and quickly spread to the north and south of the Yellow River and to all corners of the Nine Provinces.

At the same time, Qin spies lurking in Yecheng also sent the news of Liu Bei's enthronement to Qin day and night.

...

Chang'an, the Qin Imperial Palace.

"Big-eared thief!"

"How dare you, a weaver of mats and a shoe seller, claim to be an emperor and be equal to me?"

"Big-eared thief, are you worthy of it?"

"Hateful, hateful——"

Sitting on the Dragon Throne, Cao Cao was furious and threw the information about Liu Bei's enthronement in front of the hall.

Inside the hall, all the Qin officials were immediately in an uproar.

Guo Jia's brows were also furrowed, and a shadow covered his face.

He persuaded Cao Cao to become emperor with the original intention of allowing Cao Cao to surpass Liu Bei in fame and status so as to win the hearts of the people.

Who would have thought that Liu Bei would follow your example and become emperor as well.

Moreover, he called himself the Emperor of Han and announced to the outside world that he was the successor of the Han Dynasty!

As a member of the Liu royal family, Liu Bei was appointed King of Chu by the last emperor Liu Xie. In addition, he had the power to control the nine provinces. It was obvious that what Liu Bei did as emperor was more justified than what Cao Cao did.

Similarly, Liu Bei, the emperor of the Han Dynasty, is more attractive to the people of the world than Cao Cao, the emperor of the Qin Dynasty.

After all this trouble, it seems like all my efforts were in vain.

What Guo Jia was thinking was exactly the reason why Cao Cao was furious and annoyed.

"Father!"

Amid the uproar, Cao Pi suddenly stood up and said sternly:
"Liu Bei usurped the throne to compete with our father for the hearts of the people. We must not ignore it!"

"I think it is time to implement the Nine-Rank Official System immediately. Only in this way can we win the battle against the big-eared thief for the hearts and minds of the people!"

(End of this chapter)