In fact, Liu Ye's statement is correct.
By convention, rewards after a war are usually determined only after the troops return to the capital, and a thorough evaluation is conducted in the court of Luoyang.
But Cao Ren is not planning to return directly to Luoyang.
Emperor Cao Rui looked at Liu Ye and said, "Vice Chancery Liu, since I left Shou Chun, I have no intention of returning directly to Luoyang. Instead, I plan to tour the various prefectures in the central region."
"The ancestral land of the Cao family, the Qiao Prefecture, Chenliu in Yanzhou, Yingchuan in Yu Zhou, and Nanyang in Jingzhou — these are the most populous and best-known large prefectures. I want to see them all myself, which will at least take a month. By the time I return to Luoyang, it's estimated it will be March."
"Even if I can wait, the generals and officers who have fought for me may find it hard to wait. It would be better to set the order of rewards for the generals first, and then announce the details after we return to Luoyang."
Liu Ye bowed and said, "Your Majesty's deep thinking and long-term planning is something that I have not considered enough. As for the matter of rewards, is it necessary for the officials, including me, to advise the emperor as we did last year?"
Cao Rui glanced at Liu Ye and then said, "Since you, Prince Liu, have mentioned it, let's discuss it. As per the precedent, I have already decided on the increase in fiefs for the several ministers of your dignity."
"Vice Chancery Liu, please summon the other ministers of the Imperial court."
Liu Ye received the imperial edict and immediately stepped out of the room. He originally intended to have the guards call for the remaining three ministers of the Imperial court, but after a moment's reflection, he decided to go to their residences himself and bring them out.
After a moment, the four ministers bowed to the emperor in the hall.
Cao Rui looked at the faces of the four ministers and then said, "During this campaign, all of you accompanied me in person, and you have all contributed to the strategy. At the end of last year, you were all promoted to higher positions. Now, let us increase your fiefs a bit."
"Vice Chancery Liu's fiefs are increased by 200 households, while Xin, Huang, and Chen each have their fiefs increased by 100 households. Do any of you have any objections?"
The ministers hurriedly bowed in gratitude. However, upon hearing that only he was to receive an increase of 200 households while the others were to get only 100, Liu Ye stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, I merely offered my suggestions while accompanying the army and serving you. How could I deserve such a reward? I am truly ashamed."
Cao Rui gently shook his head and said, "Do you know the 'Zuo Zhuan'?"
Before Liu Ye could respond, Cao Rui continued on his own: "I too have read the 'Zuo Zhuan.' In the chapter 'Duke Zhuang of Lu, Year 10,' it says that Cao Gou believed that Duke Zhuang of Lu could fight because he was 'of the essence of loyalty.' And by 'of the essence of loyalty,' it means doing what is expected of one in their role."
"What you gentlemen do is to plan strategies and advise the soldiers to risk their lives and fight. These are all tasks that each of you should do. As for me, as the emperor, my responsibilities are merely to ensure fair rewards and punishments."
"Although the revered Wujin and his father did not usually reward the advice or strategy given by their ministers, your contributions to strategic planning are also deserving of praise. Your Majesty does not need to say such polite words anymore."
After all, it's a reward given by the emperor; who would really want to have a conflict with the rewards?
But within Cao Rui's heart, there was another calculation.
In terms of military strategy, it is a battle of human resources, material resources, and financial resources, in other words, national strength. Eastern Wu and Shu Han occupy nearly four states, and the military expenditure each year is a very large figure.
Compared to the losses in transporting grain from various states, the expenses of deploying troops, and all sorts of other miscellaneous losses, the rewards given to meritorious officials in the form of fiefs are actually quite insignificant.
Moreover, the increase in Vice Chancery Liu's fiefs by two hundred households is because of his exceptional timing in battle, while Xin Bi, Huang Quan, and Chen Jiao's increases are only one layer lower.
Two hundred households, one hundred households, this increase in fiefs is truly not small for strategists.
Not to mention anything else, let's take Xiahou Yuan, who terrified the Qiang and Hu peoples and took a tiger-like step into the Guan right, as an example.
After Xiahou Yuan defeated Ma Chao in the western borderlands, his total fiefs were only about 500 households. But after defeating Han Xian, conquering Song Jian, and pacifying the lower reaches of the Yellow River, he only added 300 more households to reach a total of 800 households.
It can be seen that adding 200 or 100 households to the fiefs of the four ministers is also not an unfair treatment.
Because the rewards for the four ministers were not the same. With differentiated treatment comes a discriminatory mindset, which is exactly what you're talking about, Liu Ye.
Indeed, Liu Ye is a strategist who often boasts of his own abilities. Liu Ye can naturally feel that the emperor often uses his strategies, but he never exclusively relies on them. He can be said to be impartial in listening to suggestions.
After consulting him on a matter, he would also ask the opinions of the other three ministers. It's similar to the current situation with the rewards. Liu Ye feels that his two hundred households of fiefs are well-deserved, but he feels that the other three ministers receiving one hundred households each is completely unnecessary.
Xin Pi is dumb, Huang Quan is cautious for his own safety, and Chen Jiao is unfamiliar with military matters. Do they deserve it? They're merely benefiting from my strategies.
While Liu Ye was thinking, the emperor's voice once again reached him.
"Counselor Xin, please take the initiative and discuss the matter of rewards for all the generals." Cao Rui said.
"According to the imperial command." Xin Pi asked immediately, "Your Majesty, shouldn't the merits of the central army commanders be assessed by the Generalissimo? Should we first determine the order of merit for the outer army and the various provinces and prefectures?"
Cao Rui nodded and said, "Let's discuss it together. Let's not follow the usual procedure. After we roughly sort out the merits today, I will consult with the Generalissimo and Grand Chancellor to review the merits of the generals in the central army, outer army, and various provinces and prefectures."
Xin Pi acknowledged the imperial edict and agreed.
In fact, this battle can be divided into three regions.
In addition to the area around Wu Commandery, the Battle of Xiang River also involved the regions around Xianning and Hu in Jingzhou, and the vicinity of Beihua in Yangtze Commandery.
The water forces of Chen Qun in Jingzhou were defeated on the Han River, and had to defend along with Wen Pei at Xiangyang and Jiangxia.
The ten thousand troops in He Fei, Liu'an, and Guangling remained inactive, and the additional ten thousand troops sent from the north and west directions to He Fei were not used either. However, this is how it appeared in hindsight. No one knew at the time whether they would be needed.
There was no significant accomplishment in the Jingzhou campaign, and there was no problem with the He Fei campaign. Therefore, it is not appropriate to give large rewards to the army in these two regions, and only a small reward for their hard work is necessary.
Now let's talk about the troops in and around Wu Commandery, which is much more complicated when it comes to assigning merits.
The emperor and the four ministers all agreed to award the highest merit to Cao Xu.
After all, as the Grand Imperial Martial of the Military Commission of Yangtze Commandery, it was Cao Xu who was responsible for overall planning before the battle. During the battle, it was Cao Xu who led the cavalry. And when it came to wrapping up the affairs around Wu Commandery-Qiankou-Wankou, it was still Cao Xu. The scale of Cao Xu's merits is almost beyond dispute.
The second merit goes to Cao Zhen. He brought the central army to Yangtze Commandery, led the elite central army to secure the rear lines, and then took charge of military affairs at the Hanging Vehicle camp.
When Xin Pi proposed that Generalissimo Cao Zhen was second in merit, to be honest, Emperor Cao Rui hesitated at the time. After all, Cao Zhen did not participate in the battle himself. However, since Cao Zhen was the esteemed Generalissimo and commanded such a large number of troops, coming in second in merit was somewhat acceptable.
After all, Cao Zhen's surname is Cao! It's only natural for the emperor to take care of the Cao family. People do this because it's part of human nature. Politics is all about people, and as long as the emperor agrees, the other three ministers have no objections.
The merit system, after removing the two most important figures, Cao Xu and Cao Zhen, without any dispute, finally entered the stage of 'discussion'.
The real point of contention is with several commanders who led troops of over ten thousand: the General Prefect Man Chong, who resisted the Wujun at the Hanging Carriage; the Right General Zhu Gai, who led a cavalry force from beginning to end; the Qingzhou Governor Wang Ling, who supervised the troops south of the Hanging Carriage; and the General Cao Tai, who launched a surprise attack on Wu Commandery.
While the ministers were discussing, Cao Rui slowly said, "Are you not forgetting about Jia Kuai?"
Xin Pi bowed and said, "Your Majesty, the Jia Kuai of Huizhou Commandery did not participate in more than one battle during his campaign. The rest of the time he was busy building fortresses. Although the four thousand troops sent by Jia Kuai to defend Wu Commandery did indeed perform their duties, Jia Kuai himself was not present at the battle. Therefore, this merit should not be attributed to him."
Cao Rui slightly shook his head. Cao Xu had a grudge against Jia Kuai and clearly assigned some unimportant, non-combat tasks to him. After all, there are hard and laborious tasks that need to be done, and as an emperor, he couldn't really say much about it.
It's relatively easy for an employer to give a subordinate a tongue-lashing. Even without using dirty tactics like defamation or plotting against someone, simply assigning them an unimportant or secondary position can erase their merits.
I can only rely on my status as emperor to advocate for Jia Kuai.
Cao Rui said, "Jia Kuai does indeed have merits, and I intend to give him an important role after this battle. Add Jia Kuai's name as well. We will discuss the merits of these five individuals at the same level and then differentiate between their ranks."
Xin Pi is simply upright and not inflexible. The military merits of various generals are arranged by these officials in the court. As the emperor has spoken, let's add Jia Kuai's name and discuss the merits of these five individuals at the same level, then differentiate between their ranks.
This is another layer of relationship on the imperial court. Even if a subordinate leader presses you down, as long as the supreme leader is willing to help you out a little, the merits will still be there.
After a round of discussion, besides Cao Xu and Cao Zhen, the order of merit in the first tier had been determined: General Prefect Man Chong, Right General Zhu Gai, General of the Eastern Frontier Cao Tai, Qingzhou Governor Wang Ling, and Huizhou Governor Jia Kuai.
There was some controversy between Man Chong and Zhu Gai. I chose Man Chong from a strategic perspective. Cao Tai and Wang Ling also had some dispute, but I chose Cao Tai based on the difficulty of carrying out military orders. And Jia Kuai, who was forced into this tier by the emperor, inevitably ended up at the bottom of the list.
Beyond these five individuals, we will put aside the discussion of officials and commanders with a merit of two thousand stones for now. As for those with a merit of one thousand or six hundred stones, their merits will be reported to the court as per the usual practice by officials with a merit of two thousand stones.
The emperor is about to set off for his northern retreat, and the withdrawal process is being carried out in an orderly manner.
In Wankou, the confrontation across the river with Sun Quan has been lifted. Sun Quan can only respond verbally, inviting the Wei army to face the Wu army on the Yangtze River, unlike previous times at Ruju when he asked for a ceasefire.
If it were merely a disadvantage, asking for a truce and seeking peace could save national resources. But now, the more devastating the defeat and the greater the loss, the more one must make a show of strength and not give an inch in words.
The Wei proposal for prisoner exchange was thus ignored by Sun Quan. It's not worth bringing back so many defeated soldiers, and how many of them are still capable of fighting is uncertain. It's just a matter of losing their credibility.
Would Wei send back its elite troops? This is impossible. From Sun Quan's perspective, he has suffered a defeat. How could you, the Wei army, still cross the Yangtze River to attack me?
As in the case of Red Cliffs, it seems that the two sides will have to face off for a long time before they can start talking again.
In the afternoon, Xiahou Yuan, a State Military Affairs Supervisor, reported that General of the Eastern Frontier Cao Tai had just returned with his troops to Shuchun and had come to the imperial palace to see the emperor. The emperor, of course, did not have a reason to refuse to see him.
Cao Tai stepped into the hall quickly, saluted the emperor, and said, "Your Majesty, I have just returned to Shuchun and come to see Your Majesty at once."
As the son of Cao Ren, Cao Tai served as a general in Cao Ren's army for over a decade. Unlike his peers Cao Xu, Cao Zhen, and Xiahou Shang, who were capable of holding important positions, Cao Tai was not as outstanding. When Emperor Cao Rui used Cao Tai to attack Wu Commandery in an unusual way, which could either be successful and boost his merits or fail without causing much damage, it was also a way for him to test Cao Tai's heart.
However, Cao Tai performed much better than expected in this battle. It's not about how quickly and smoothly he took Ankou, but that he was able to successfully follow a general direction, reach the designated location even when half of his troops fell behind, which was quite surprising.
Emperor Cao Rui walked over and lifted Cao Tai up: "General of the Eastern Frontier, you have been through a lot in this battle! You truly have a bit of the style of Xu Zhennan's 'direct advance'." Xu Zhennan refers to Xu Huang, who was elevated to the title of General Commander of the South at the end of last year.
Cao Tai's recent achievement also dispelled the depression caused by the Wu Commandery battle years ago. He smiled and said, "It is the duty of my life to serve the country to the best of my abilities. Your Majesty, I have returned with a war trophy this time. May I present it to Your Majesty?"
(End of Chapter)
