The court has its own laws when rewarding important matters. Therefore, at the end of the first month, Liu Bei asked Zhong Yao and Xun You to discuss it, which means asking for a suggestion. The final conclusion of the court naturally came to the first day of the second month.

In addition, in the last three or four days of the first lunar month, Gao Shun's information was rushed to Chang'an, allowing Liu Bei to learn about Yuan Shu's death.

This matter has nothing directly to do with Liu Bei, it was Cao Cao who fought Yuan Shu. But the ruthless traitor was finally full of evil deeds, which is good news after all, and it is worth increasing the intensity of celebration.

In addition, because he happened to be delivered before the dynasty meeting on the first day of the February 1st, Liu Bei asked the court officials to discuss whether he should consider pardoning some of the guilty surrendered generals under Yuan Shu.

The result of the court debate was naturally to suggest that Liu Bei consider this matter later - mainly because Liu Xie was killed in February last year, and now he is not even the anniversary of Liu Xie's death. The rash pardon of Yuan Shu's criminal generals is easy to find excuses for Yuan Shao and Cao Cao's camp, so he should delay it a little.

It will be almost done until late February.

Of course, this reason cannot be stated explicitly. Therefore, the reason for the court discussion was: it is recommended that Liu Bei "listen to both sides" about this matter and listen to what his opinion on this matter next time Sikong and Li Su sent the letter back to Chang'an.

The messenger sent by Li Su to report the victory last time was staying in Chang'an for the past five days. It was only after the court concluded that he could take Liu Bei's order and instruct him to go back.

There is no need to hurry to go through this kind of daily official documents. Even if you rush to take a rest on both sides, you will only take a reply from Chang'an to Xiakou for a round trip in just 20 days.

Therefore, when Li Su comes back next time, it will be no more than half of February, just after Liu Xie’s anniversary.

On the second day of the second month, Liu Bei formally issued an order to Li Su, including rewards and comforts for Li Su, rewards and comforts, and subsequent strategic instructions, as well as informing Li Su of the latest situation of the Northern Front war.

He also told him that the emperor was going to free up troops on the northern line and asked Wu Yi to bring reinforcements to support Li Su.

In addition to the imperial edict, there is also a private message from Liu Bei to Li Su. The content is nothing more than asking Li Su to write another letter to Zhen Yan when he replied next time, and he took the initiative to propose to hire Zhen Mi. As for the subsequent procedures, Zhen Jiang will naturally handle it in Chang'an.

Of course, there is no trouble of taking a concubine with three media and six hirings, but it can also be awarded the lottery. The traditional and simple are based on people, and the degree of freedom is relatively high.

If you are marrying a wife, you can make an advance decision according to the "half of the princes and three months for the doctor". There is no rigid regulation on the time difference when taking a concubine. However, if it is more serious, in order to show respect for the woman, Li Su can also follow the doctor's standards and be three months ahead of the standard.

Within the next twenty days, everything went smoothly. There was no new progress in the war between the north and south, and they were just stalemate.

On the seventh day of the second month, Liu Bei's decree arrived at Xiakou and was sent to the Chaisang front on the ninth day of the day. The promoted generals were naturally excited. Li Su also ordered a banquet in front of the army to slightly relax the military discipline for a few days and let the troops celebrate.

Huang Zhong and Taishi Ci, two upstarts in the army who were promoted to General Si'an, naturally received the most congratulations and envy from their colleagues. Anyway, the war was not nervous, so they got drunk for three days.

On February 11th, the day after the celebration, Li Su also prepared a reply to Liu Bei and a private message to Zhen Yan, and asked the messenger to travel back and forth to Chang'an. On February 18th, he successfully arrived in Chang'an.

After Zhen Yan received the letter, he asked to go to the palace to visit relatives the next day and met his sister Zhen Jiang. Then he pretended to give Li Su's letter to his sister, asking her to make the decision for the fifth sister, and decided whether to accept the appointment first and then consider the next step in three months.

Of course, Zhen Jiang didn't seem to be willing to be a concubine for a long time. He had to pretend to discuss for a few days and ask the emperor for instructions.

On the other hand, Li Su's official reply to Liu Bei was naturally the first time, and he took it out for everyone to discuss it at the court meeting on February 21. Finally, everyone agreed: in order to show the emperor's kindness, Yuan Shu had also died for a few months, and Liu Xie's anniversary was over. Those guilty surrendered generals will be pardoned and relieved, and give them a chance to be a new person.

...

The day after the court meeting, Liu Bei's decree to pardon the core criminal generals under Yuan Shu, and sent them to the generals outside Chang'an City as the craftsman camp to read to the relevant personnel who were serving their sentences there.

The general manager was a yamen in charge of the imperial engineering and the construction of vehicle, ship and water conservancy. It was traditionally divided into "five schools", among which the "left school" was generally dedicated to the labor of guilty people (Zhu Jun's boss Yin Duan had discussed the failure of the thief Xuchang and was punished to work for the left school. Zhu Jun spent money to redeem his superiors).

Because Liu Bei's camp likes to engage in infrastructure, its authority and oil have increased in recent years, and its status has increased a lot compared to the time of the late emperor. Of course, the yamen that serves as prisoners are located in the city, but the craftsman's camp that serves prisoners are still located outside the city. The land in Chang'an is crowded and valuable, and there is not so much land for these sinners to waste.

Qiao Rui, who was in his early forties, had been working here for nearly ten months as a blacksmith. When the order came, he and a group of other prisoners with lower ranks than him were working hard, and his reaction was a little slow.

After all, Qiao Rui was once the Jingzhao Yin, who was granted before Yuan Shu usurped the rebellion. He had the highest status among the guilty generals captured by Liu Bei. When he was forced to surrender last year, he initially fantasized that he would soon be replaced by "submission" instead of serving his sentence like he was captured by a fierce and ruthless person.

However, he soon became desperate and then had to accept a new life. Moreover, there was no internal and external news, and he didn't even know how his family would be dealt with.

Since Qiao Rui was a military general, he was quite strong, so after he entered the left school to work, he was assigned to be a blacksmith, allowing him to swing a sledgehammer every day, and he could not rest if he didn't swing for eight hours.

Anyone who has seen traditional blacksmiths knows that blacksmiths often have two groups, the master takes a small hammer and the apprentice takes a sledgehammer. The small hammer is responsible for mastering the rhythm, directing the hammer where to hammer and how strong it is. The sledgehammer just sells his strength.

Of course, Qiao Rui did not understand the skills of blacksmiths. He only had the strength and could only swing a sledgehammer. Fortunately, the prisoner who was the left school could still eat enough. If he wanted to eat, he could add it to his own expenses. He could still see meat during the Chinese New Year and the holidays. He usually had sufficient soy products, so he would not die of overwork.

It seems that Liu Bei is indeed a personal lord. He has no hope of these sinners who work hard and are exhausted. He intends to let them go out alive and undergo transformation.

Qiao Rui swung a large iron hammer that lasted 2,400 hours in three hundred days, and his arms were swung a long circle. He also swung a little experience and learned that the thing he created every day was called "plate armor", which was the high-quality steel armor that Liu Beijun had newly built over the years.

Among them, the breastplate, the entire back plate armor, and the curved armor on the front of the thigh, these large pieces cannot be forged by artificial blacksmiths, and they are all hydraulic forging hammers to hammer.

Artificial artifacts mainly create joint parts such as shoulders, elbows, etc., which require flexible opening and closing. These places require arc-shaped thin and narrow elastic steel sheets, each with different arcs to connect those large parts. The machine is too rough to produce differentiation of curvature, so it can only be manually hammered to shape.

These things were originally only built in the workshops in Jianwei County, Yizhou, and the same technology was opened in Chang'an in the past two years.

After serving his sentence for a long time, he was not a brain-strung because he could not do anything about swinging a hammer. After practicing, he could occasionally get rid of his mind. Qiao Rui gradually calmed down and understood why he couldn't get out, but Liu Bei was disdainful to deal with him-

Liu Bei actually didn't want to save Liu Xie at the beginning, but Qiao Rui blocked Liu Bei's way to save Liu Xie at that time. Therefore, Liu Bei had to severely punish Qiao Rui for the world to show it to prove how sincere he was to save Liu Xie.

Today, just after Qiao Rui was completely numb and numb, there was a turning point.

When he heard the general amnesty, he could hardly believe his ears.

"Yuan Shu died at the end of last month! He jumped into the fire and burned himself to death before Cao Cao captured Shouchun! He also burned Shouchun's pseudo-palace!"

A group of sinners heard that the former master was finally dead, and they felt relieved.

"General Qiao, we are free. Emperor Huai has been dead for more than a year. Your Majesty has finally passed away." Several school lieutenants and chief lieutenants around him were all glad to Qiao Rui.

Qiao Rui walked out of the Left School Office A in a daze and saw the official who came to promulgate the imperial edict at the door. He plucked up his courage to ask: "I dare to ask the officer, Qiao Rui, the crime is in charge, I want to know that my family is now..."

The official who came to release the people was not bad: "Don't worry, Your Majesty has specially told you not to make things difficult for the sinner's wife. Your wife is only Bai Canyue and has not been humiliated. Today I also specially brought it, take it home and live a good life."

As he said that, a woman was taken from a car next to him, and she was Qiao Rui's back wife, Yang.

"Bai Can" means sifting grain, separating white rice and rice bran, or sifting out wheat bran from flour, which is considered a relatively light labor in the labor sentence that women are subject to.

Qiao Rui was still a little unbelievable, and grabbed his wife's arms and groped up and down for a while, but he didn't seem to have suffered any hardships, so he ignored it.

He asked his children how they were, and learned that his son was only asked to chop wood because he was young and had been released. But the eldest daughter and the younger daughter were finished.

The eldest daughter has become Li Su's slave, and the younger daughter is also Zhuge Liang's slave. Li Su is not going to take Daqiao as a concubine, and Zhuge Liang has no plans to take the concubine yet. Unless Xiaoqiao gives birth to a child in the future, then make up for one.

The official in charge of the release seemed to respect Qiao Rui's opinion: "What? Could it be that Qiao Sheng still has any ideas? Your Majesty is polite and polite. The family members of the previous crimes after the general amnesty can be completely ignored according to law.

Therefore, if Qiao Sheng wants to return Ling Yan, he will ask his friend to prepare some money and follow the procedures for redeeming slaves and servants, and formally propose that the two Ling Yan can be redeemed from Li Sikong and Zhuge Changshi's mansion."

Of course, there is nothing we can do about the fact that we have been played with, and redemption is just to restore freedom.

Qiao Rui thought about it and gave up. How could such a person afford to be provoked? Even if he is within the scope of the amnesty, he has only become a civilian and has not restored his official position. How could he beat others?
Chapter completed!