I want to be emperor

Chapter 222 Founding a Country and Proclaiming the Emperor (Second Update Please Subscribe)
On September [-]th of the eighth year of Chongzhen, dozens of civil officials headed by Guo Quanshu, Chen Xingkai, and Yuan Gaofeng, and dozens of generals headed by Wang Xiazi, Huang Dingquan, etc., once again ran in front of Luo Zhixue Persuade.

This time the persuasion was more formal, but according to tradition, Luo Zhixue still refused.

After the rejection this time, everyone was elated, because everyone knew that according to the tradition, there were three words.

After these three speeches, it is natural to officially proclaim the emperor.

At this time, the various preparations for the founding of the country and proclaiming the emperor in the city have come to an end, and the streets in the city have been renovated and paved with loess.

The Temporary Temple of Heaven has also been built.

Luo Zhixue's full set of dresses and accessories for his ascension to the throne have been prepared, and several sets have been prepared just in case, so as not to be replaced in case of temporary damage.

The city of Hanyang was decorated with lanterns and festoons, but the city of Wuchang across the river was gloomy, especially Tang Hui.

After the news of Zhong Xiang's defeat reached the capital, Chongzhen directly issued an order to arrest Tang Hui and put him in prison.

He flew all the way to Wuchang, and then arrested Tang Hui. At this time, Tang Hui was already imprisoned. Whether he himself or others, he knew that the fate waiting for him was either exile or murder.

There will be no better end.

After Tang Hui was arrested, there was no one to take charge of the military affairs in Wuchang. As for the new prime minister elected by the imperial court, Yang Sichang was also the governor of Huguang for the military affairs of the five provinces.

This person is still in the process of recovering from love.

Even if Chongzhen wanted to recover this person regardless of political influence, he had to follow the rules, especially the previous times of recovery must be rejected.

Only after three times, Yang Sichang reluctantly agreed to recover.

Even if the situation is tense now, there are still many procedures that should be followed. It will take a few months to complete this set of procedures.

Of course, although Yang Sichang was not yet able to officially take office, he had already started to deal with affairs in Huguang and other places under the urgent situation.

Of course, it could not be in his own name, but he gave his own suggestions to the imperial court, and asked the imperial court to directly order the governors of the provinces to implement it.

Yang Sichang's suggestion to the imperial court is the most important thing is to contain.

This encirclement is not the same as encirclement of thieves. It is targeted at the situation that the rural protection army is now powerful and the field is stronger. Expansion capacity.

After the development of the Township Protection Army is contained, slowly gather troops to counterattack!
This is a rather conservative strategy. Chongzhen was not interested in this strategy at the beginning. What he wanted to hear more was that Yang Sichang said that he would gather troops to directly counterattack Xiangyang and destroy the security thieves...

But in Yang Sichang's plan, he relied on the strong city for defense, and as for the counterattack, it would be a year later.

But many ministers also said that it is too difficult to counterattack now, and the court is fighting on multiple fronts, and it is difficult to mobilize troops, so Chongzhen finally agreed.

At the suggestion of Yang Sichang, the Ming court began to implement the blockade plan.

It is planned to carry out a comprehensive blockade around the north of Chu. For example, in Ruzhou, Zuo Liangyu's subordinates will mainly defend Ye County and other places, and let other Ruzhou troops station in Lushan County and block Luyang Pass to prevent the bandits from sending troops. Central Plains, scourge of the Yellow River Basin.

Let the Ming army in Runing Mansion and other places block the three passes of Yiyang to prevent the bandit army from going east out of the Huaihe River area.

They also let the troops of Shaanxi, Sichuan and other provinces block strategically important places such as Hanzhong Mansion and Kuizhou Mansion.

The officers and soldiers in the Jiangbei area of ​​​​South Zhili were also ordered to block the Taihu and Susong areas to prevent the bandits from entering the Jiangbei area of ​​​​South Zhili.

At the same time, let the Ming army in Jiangxi, Chunan and other places gather their troops to the Wuchang area to prevent the bandits from crossing the river.

After the above-mentioned deployment is completed, according to the thoughts of Chongzhen and the princes of the court, it should be possible to curb the offensive of the thieves.

But these have nothing to do with Tang Hui, now he has become a prisoner.

When Tang Hui became a prisoner, all preparations for the founding of the country and proclaiming the emperor in Hanyang across the river came to an end.

On September [-]th, the civilian officials of the Township Protection Army once again persuaded them to come in, but this time Luo Zhixue finally did not refuse.

This has been rejected three times, if you still refuse the fourth time, you will be a fool...

As soon as Luo Zhixue promised to be the emperor, Huang Dingquan, Wang Xiazi, Guo Quanshu and other civil and military officials followed the etiquette and bowed and saluted, shouting long live!
Seeing hundreds of people kneeling in front of him, Luo Zhixue had been preparing for this day for a long time, and even rehearsed by himself, but he was still quite excited and even nervous.

Even when she said the words "Outstanding Aiqing Pingshen", there was a hint of trill.

It's just that at this time, everyone was in high spirits, so naturally no one would notice Luo Zhixue's nervousness.

After the persuasion is over, the official enthronement ceremony will follow immediately.

This set of ceremonies is very complicated. Luo Zhixue and the others are not some grassroots team, but a military group that controls the eight prefectures in northern Chu and has tens of thousands of troops. the regular ones.

During the enthronement ceremony, more people knelt down and shouted long live. From Luo Zhixue's line of sight, there were thousands of kneeling people in the front and bottom.

The feeling of being shouted long live by thousands of people almost made his whole soul boil.

When listening to thousands of people shouting long live, he finally understood why so many people in the past dynasties wanted to rebel and become emperor. This feeling of looking down on all living beings is really indescribable.

At the same time, his courtiers, especially senior officials such as Guo Quanshu and Huang Dingquan, who were saluting in front, were extremely excited. Even when they were saluting, when they looked at Luo Zhixue out of the corner of their eyes, they felt that Luo Zhixue was different from before. .

What was Luo Zhixue like before?
Before Luo Zhixue came to power, Luo Zhixue mainly dressed as a scholar, wearing a robe with a square scarf, and occasionally carrying a folding fan.

And when Luo Zhixue came to power, Luo Zhixue would wear regular clothes in the inner house, and he basically wore military uniforms when he went out. This was to show his control over the army.
At the same time, dressing up in military uniform can also make people better ignore his age.

After all, no matter how you say it, Luo Zhixue is only 16 years old, and he is still growing this year...

Dressing up too young will give people a feeling that they are not mature enough, so Luo Zhixue specially dresses up to be old every day, and even wears military uniforms every day after he takes power.

During this process, other people's perception of Luo Zhixue gradually changed from a scholar to a military adviser, then to a general, and finally to a leader.

But today, Luo Zhixue, who is wearing a crown suit, seems to have left only one impression on everyone, that is the emperor!
Starting today, their major general will become the emperor!

As for who these courtiers are here, there is another factor in their elation today, that is, since they have all founded the country and proclaimed themselves emperors, then they are the real founding heroes. After the enthronement ceremony is over, they will be rewarded for their merits it's time.

Many people are already thinking about what kind of title they can get.

The enthronement ceremony was complicated, and it was tiring to sit through the whole process, but even though they were tired, Luo Zhixue and a group of courtiers still had smiles on their faces.

After the enthronement ceremony, Luo Zhixue officially ordered that the name of the country be "Chu", the name of the year be Chengshun, and this year be changed to the first year of Chengshun.

After the country name and year name are formally determined by imperial decree, then the whole set of ceremony of founding the country and proclaiming the emperor is over.

But for the newly born Great Chu Empire, for Luo Zhixue and other monarchs and ministers, things are far from easy.

After officially proclaiming himself emperor, Luo Zhixue rewarded all civil and military officials with meritorious deeds.

Although they are all illusory nobles with annual salary and no actual fiefdom, this is also the great pursuit of a group of courtiers.

When Luo Zhixue conferred the title, he comprehensively considered the qualifications and contributions of his subjects, and at the same time, he also considered that the Great Chu Empire only occupied one northern part of Chu, and would need to continue to expand in the future. After the unification of China, another large-scale canonization would inevitably be carried out .

Therefore, this time Luo Zhixue was more cautious in ennobling Luo Zhixue, and he also revealed the rumors to his courtiers in advance that the titles of this time will not be too high. credit.

After comprehensive consideration, Luo Zhixue decreed that Wang Xiazi, Huang Dingquan, Lin Dongsheng, Xu He, Li Chengtong, Zhang Malin, An Yongduo, and Ma Dapao were all eight marquises.

Zuo Yingzhe, Xu Zhixian, Dong Mingjie, Zhao Hongshu, Fei Bingqing, Han Ziping, Wei Kaifu, Yu Xiujie, Hu Hongzhuo, Qu Yangshu, Li Dongshao, Guo Quanshu, Yuan Gaofeng, Chen Xingkai, Ding Gangyi, a total of 15 people were named earls.

Under the earl and marquis, Luo Zhixue also conferred dozens of viscounts and hundreds of barons.

As for the duke, there is no canonization for the time being.

Luo Zhixue made it clear to the senior officials that the duke would not be canonized until after the unification of China, and whoever could get the title of duke would depend on their own merits.

This time, the scale of the knighthood was huge. A total of more than 200 nobles above the baron level were canonized out. Basically, the seniority, higher-ranking military officers and senior civil servants all participated.

Even Dong Xin, the prefect of Anlu Prefecture, who was born as a demoted official and had only been a thief for a few months, won the title of baron.

Although there was no Duke this time, Luo Zhixue did his best to cover as many people as possible. In order to cover as many people as possible, he specially picked up the viscount and baron that had been canceled by the Ming Dynasty.

After all, many courtiers have meritorious service, but they can't reach the level of directly conferring marques or earls, and Luo Zhixue is not going to come up with such a wonderful system of hereditary military ranks as a supplement for low-level titles.

So simply picked up the titles of viscount and baron again.

The large-scale granting of titles made the senior generals and civil servants of the new Great Chu Empire all smiles, especially since they also knew that the unification war was not over yet, and they would be able to obtain higher titles for their meritorious service in the future.

Even the mid- and low-level officers who have not been able to obtain the title for the time being can still hope to obtain the title for their meritorious service in the subsequent war.

(End of this chapter)