Liu Xin thought for a while and said to Brother Xiahou: "After I heard that you are the famous general Xiahou Ying, now the portrait of your ancestor is hanging in the Pavilion of Meritorious Heroes, and you have made such a rebellious act, don't you feel a little ashamed?" ”

Xiahoudun snorted coldly and said: "Don't be hypocritical, the eldest husband should die standing up, how can he live on his knees!" If you want to trick my brother into serving you, don't think about it! ”

Liu Xin laughed and said: "Xiahoudun, your brother is just a martial artist, and my subordinates are like clouds, where are you two missing?" If it weren't for the fact that you have a good niece, I wouldn't care if you live or die! But think of your wives and concubines, and your children, for if you are put to death, they will all be slaves for life! ”

There are portraits of the ancestors hanging in front, but in the back, they are faced with their wives and concubines and children being slaves for life, and even the Xiahou brothers, who have experienced countless life-and-death battles, hesitated. Xiahou Yuan's words loosened a little, and he hesitated: "What else do you want?" ”

Liu Xin waved his hand and said, "As long as you live in peace in the future, I will forgive you." If your children and grandchildren have a good reputation, they can also enter the court as officials, and I will not make things difficult for the two of you because of their status. ”

Xiahou Yuan no longer hesitated, glanced at Xiahou Yuan, knelt on one knee on the ground, bowed his head and said, "Thank you, Your Majesty, for releasing your suspicions, and a certain wish to surrender!" ”

"You don't need to thank me, if you want to thank your niece." Liu Xin nodded and ordered, "Take the two brothers down, deport them back to their hometown, and let their families go." ”

Xu You and the others suddenly became anxious, and said in a loud voice: "Your Majesty, we are all sincerely repentant, and we don't want to be officials again, but only to save our wives, and beg Your Majesty to ......."

Liu Xin didn't wait for them to finish speaking, and waved his hand. The guards had been waiting impatiently, and when they saw Liu Xin's gesture, they pounced like a wolf, dragged a few of them and walked to the front of the steps, with their knives in their hands, and a few wisps of grievances went west.

The ceremony of sacrificing prisoners in the Taimiao Temple is completed, and the next step is to reward the meritorious soldiers. Cao Cao, Yuan Shao, and the families of those under them were all given to the heroes as slaves, and they were also rewarded with mansions, fields, gold, silver, and jewelry.

In addition, Liu Xin formulated a new title system, setting up three titles: duke, marquis, and earl. Xu Huang, Zhang Fei, Zhang He, Dian Wei, Xu Zhu, Zhao Yun, Tian Feng, and Fu Zhu were all named dukes. These eight people are either Liu Xin's sworn brothers, or the old men who have followed Liu Xin since Hejian, and naturally no one has any objections to enjoy such a honor. The rest such as Cheng Yu, Guo Jia, Cai Yong, Guan Yu, Zhang Liao, Huang Zhong and others were all made marquis, and even Lei Tong and Wu Lan were also made earls. And Shi Jian and Wang Wei, who died in the war, should not have been knighted for their merits and status, and Liu Xin remembered the day when they did not get the victory, and also posthumously awarded them the earl.

Titles, like official positions, can enjoy a rich salary. The duke's salary is equivalent to the first rank official position, and so on, the marquis's salary is equivalent to the second rank official position, and the earl's salary is equivalent to the third rank official position. The most important thing is that the title can be hereditary. Of course, Liu Xin's hereditary regulations are different from those of the previous dynasty, stipulating that the title of title can be hereditary, but Yulu can only be hereditary for three generations.

Liu Xin did this for a reason.

The Han Dynasty's salary is quite rich, even if it is the lowest-ranking earl, the annual salary is as high as five million yuan. The northern states have just calmed down from **, and things are still in a higher position, and according to the price level of Jing, Yi and other places, 100,000 yuan is enough for a family of five to live a very comfortable life, and 5 million yuan can feed two or three hundred people. And during the New Year's holidays, the court will have another reward. Because the title can be hereditary, there will only be more and more people with the title, and as the Han Dynasty lasts for hundreds of generations, this money will become a heavy burden.

On the other hand, Liu Xin also does not want the children of these heroes to lie on the merits of their ancestors and eat their old books, so that they do not want to forge ahead. As long as they lose their titles, they will naturally find ways to do anything, either to study and enter the ranks, or to do business to make money.

In the same way, Liu Xin also treats her children in the same way. When his children reach adulthood, their sons will be crowned princes and their daughters will be crowned princesses, but Liu Xin stipulates that they can only enjoy the earl's salary, and such a salary can only be hereditary for three generations. After all, these children have not contributed much to the country, but they are just from a better background, and they cannot be supported by the country. Moreover, Liu Xin wants to train children to be self-reliant, no matter what, their starting point is definitely much better than that of other people's children. Although the ministers have many objections to such a plan, Liu Xin also treats his own children equally, so it is difficult for others to say anything.

After rewarding the ministers, Liu Xin held a feast in the palace to reward the ministers. This time, Liu Xin did not limit the participants to the corps commander and the secretary of each department, but authorized all officials above the fifth rank in the capital to attend.

It was a great honor for the ministers to be able to attend a banquet at the palace, and the variety of dishes served at the banquet made them even more enjoyable. In fact, because Liu Xin implemented independent accounting for the expenses of the palace, this meal did not use any delicacies from the mountains and seas, and they were all very ordinary ingredients. However, the unique cooking method has turned these ordinary ingredients into rare delicacies in the world, and anyone who has attended the banquet has praised the food they ate tonight, and they still remember it decades later.

After unifying the entire Han Dynasty and completely incorporating the entire Mobei grassland into the territory of the Han Dynasty, eliminating the biggest hidden danger of the northern nomads who had long plagued the Han people, especially realizing his desire to curb the sharp decline of the Han population, Liu Xin's mood was also extremely good. He usually rarely drinks alcohol, but today he also drank three glasses in a row, and he was slightly drunk.

Seeing that the ministers had almost swept away all the dishes on the table, Liu Xin laughed, waved his hand, and said, "I suddenly have an idea, this year's New Year, we will change the tricks, no longer reward you with gold, silver and jewelry, but allow each of you to send a cook to the palace to learn how to cook these dishes." I wonder what you think? Of course, if anyone still wants a year's gift, I won't force it. ”

Zhang Fei stood up first, and said in a thick voice: "Big brother, this is a good idea, I am the first to agree, this year's New Year is gone, I want to eat such delicious food every day!" ”

Liu Xin pardoned his uncle today, and did not take away his death-free gold medal, which made Zhang Fei extremely happy, and after he went back, he could make a good contribution in front of Xiahou Juan, and he didn't care about what was given every year or not, as long as Liu Xin put forward the idea, he would applaud it.

The annual gifts issued by the Han court every year are quite generous, and many ministers present are still a little distressed. However, Zhang Fei agreed first, and the others were embarrassed to refuse, so as not to make people think that they were worth their lives. Especially for most civil servants, reputation is really more important than life.

However, Fu Zhu and the others actively agreed, and they all understood that Liu Xin was trying to save money for the imperial court. The annual gifts were issued in the name of the imperial court and did not need to be paid from the inner treasury of the imperial palace. But in order for the vast number of people in the northern states to survive this winter, the treasury will need to pay a large amount of money and food, and it is indeed time to tighten the belt of the trousers.

Liu Xin saw that all the ministers had no opinions, and couldn't help but be even more happy, and drank a few big glasses in a row. By the time the banquet was over, he was already walking a little swaying. Seeing this, several palace maids hurriedly stepped forward to help Liu Xin go to the harem to rest. Liu Xin did not choose palace maids among the people, these people were all official slaves who were confiscated into the palace, and many of them were born in scholar families. But as soon as the Houmen enters the sea, it is as deep as the sea, let alone the imperial palace? They all know very well that the hope of being released in this life is very slim, and the best outcome is to be able to be favored by Liu Xin. Now that Liu Xin has drunk a lot of wine, it is their opportunity to come.

Although these palace maids are all young and beautiful, Liu Xin is no longer the hairy young man who first arrived in the Han Dynasty, he waved his hand without hesitation, let all those palace maids retreat, and staggered towards the harem. Zhang Gou'er and several chamberlains were worried that Liu Xin would lose, so they had to follow left and right, but they didn't dare to help him.

Although the newly renovated palace is not splendid, it covers an extremely large area, according to Xiang Lang, who is in charge of this project, there are 999 and a half large and small houses, and most of them are concentrated in the harem. There are pavilions and pavilions in the harem, and there are all kinds of pavilions and pavilions, and the only inconvenient thing is that Liu Xin's women live relatively scattered.

At this time, the night was already dark, and except for a few lanterns on the road, the rest of the harem was pitch black, and there were only a handful of places where the lights were still on. However, Liu Xin still continued the rules of the previous time in Xiangyang, and should go to Minchan to rest today as usual, so Minchan will not turn off the lights at this time.

Liu Xin just walked towards the place where the lights were on, and after a while, he came to the front of a quiet courtyard, pushed open the door and walked in.

Zhang Gou'er hurriedly stepped forward and whispered, "Your Majesty, it's wrong. ”

Along the way, some cold wind blew, Liu Xin was already much sober, looked up carefully, and sure enough, this place didn't seem to have been to before, and couldn't help asking, "Where is this?" How did I get here? ”

Zhang Gou'er sneered and said: "Your Majesty has a lot of opportunities, how can you have time to wander around the palace, there are naturally many places that you haven't been to." This is a quiet room behind Cai Guifei's palace, which contains some books from Guifei Niangniang, and no one usually lives there......"

Liu Xin didn't wait for him to finish speaking, frowned, and said, "Since it is uninhabited, how can it be that the lights are still on in the middle of the night?" Isn't it a thief? No, I must go and see it! ”

Zhang Gou'er slandered in his heart, thieves are all acting in secret, how can there be a reason to steal things with the lights on. It's just that Liu Xin's words have been spoken, but he doesn't dare to stop them. And although Liu Xin drank too much wine, his movements were still very fast, and when he spoke, the people had already arrived in the yard, and Zhang Gou'er was too late to stop him even if he wanted to.