After six years of hard work, Cao Cao finally ushered in a new starting point for his personal career. In the first year of Jian'an (196), under his auspices, Emperor Xian went to Xu County (now Xuchang, Henan), which marked the beginning of a new era. Cao Cao was forty-two years old this year, when he was the most vigorous. In order to consolidate the achievements already made, Cao Cao fought back against the chasing Yang Feng Group in October of this year, defeated the largest military force around Xu County, and ensured the safety of the new capital of the empire.After that, he returned to Xu County to start various construction work inside and outside the court.

About a month ago, when Emperor Xian and his party first arrived in Xu County, Cao Cao sent people to renovate the city walls and buildings in Xu County, and built the imperial palace as the place where Emperor Xian lived and worked.After intensive construction day and night, although it is still rudimentary, it is ready to move in and live in. Xu County was the capital of the vassal states in the Zhou Dynasty. According to the Zhou system, the Zhou royal city was "Fangjiuli", and the vassal states under it were divided into Qili, Wuli, and Sanli according to their grades. Xu State was a fifth-class vassal state. The capital of the country should be less than seven miles, more than three miles, about five miles.According to the "Xuchang County Chronicles" compiled during the Republic of China, in the Han and Wei dynasties, "the ancient city of Xuchang is 30 miles east of the city, with a circumference of 9 miles and 129 steps. According to legend, it was built by Cao Cao, and the site remains today."It is also recorded that "it is fifteen miles around, and it is said that Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty moved his capital here".

In the Zhou Dynasty, 300 steps were used as a mile. After textual research, it is about 415 meters, which is smaller than the current mile. The archaeological evidence basically agrees with the ancient system.According to these materials, it can be deduced that the ancient city of Xu County is small in scale, with a side length of only a little more than three miles, and can only be used as the imperial palace and the main office of the imperial court. Cao Cao regarded this part as the inner city, and then relied on the inner city to build an area five times larger. the outer city. I have been here a few years ago. I first took the train to Xuchang City, then changed to a bus to a town not far east of the city, and then changed to a motorized tricycle and walked along a trail into a corn field.There is only one high earth platform left there, with steps to go up, and there is actually a family living on it.

This earthen platform is Yuxiu Terrace, which should have been one of the landmark buildings in the inner city back then, and it was a place where emperors were offered sacrifices to heaven and earth.Now here again, except for the earthen platform, other relics of the old city have disappeared.It is said that when Mao Zedong was in his youth, he passed by Xuchang when he traveled from his hometown to Beiping. He took his friends to this stage and recited the poem "Heng Leng's poems are full of poetry, and since Ming Benzhi is a good article". In the first year of Jian'an, the emperor's palace, court affairs departments, and Cao Cao's military command organization all flocked here, and it would definitely be very crowded.

Emperor Xian Liu Xie fled from Chang'an until now, he only cared about saving his life along the way, and basically lost all the imperial possessions and documents and files in the palace. There are two memorials preserved in "Cao Cao Collection", one is "Shangjiu Brewing Wine", which says that Guo Zhi, the county magistrate of Qiao County, Cao Cao's hometown, invented a kind of "Jiuyun Spring Wine", which has good health benefits. Function, Cao Cao specially went to Emperor Xian to introduce the brewing method of this wine in detail, and also talked about his own transformation of this wine making method.

The other one is "Shang Miscellaneous Book", which said that Cao Cao specially presented some palace items preserved by himself to the emperor. Most of these things were rewards received by Cao Teng and Cao Song during the reign of the first emperor.This list is quite long, but it is also very interesting. You can see the face of court life at that time. Cao Cao’s offerings include: Thirty kinds of imperial objects, including one sterling silver ginseng inkstone; two lacquer-painted Wei pillows (Wei pillows: leather pillows) for imperial objects, and thirty black lacquered Wei pillows for noble princesses; There are thirty kinds of imperial objects, including one pure gold censer with its own base; the noble princess has four sterling silver censers, the crown prince has four sterling silver censers, and the Xiyuan nobleman has thirty copper censers; for imperial sundries, there are One pure gold spitting pot (spit pot: a device for carrying saliva), the nobleman has 30 sterling silver ginseng spit pots; the imperial miscellaneous has four lacquered round oil spitting pots; Five-stone copper bath plate; imperial objects include a sterling silver engraved lacquer painting book table; thirty kinds of imperial objects, including one each of the weight and size of the lacquer painting on the car; the imperial sundries include sterling silver bath beans Similar to modern soap), sterling silver engraved dowry; imperial objects include four silver engraved lacquer cases;

At the same time, Cao Cao actively started planning a new personnel layout. During Emperor Xian's return to the east, senior civil officials including the three princes and nine ministers of the imperial court accompanied him. Several people died in the war, and there are already many vacancies that need to be filled.In addition, Emperor Xian Liu Xie also appointed many generals, and according to the needs of the new situation, adjustments must also be made. The senior generals officially appointed by the imperial court successively include: General Han Xian, General Zhang Ji of Hussars, and General Guo Si of Chariots. These can be regarded as the first level of "General"; (It used to be Ma Teng before, and it is estimated that Ma Teng issued an edict to withdraw after participating in the rebellion), former general Gongsun Zan, rear general Yang Ding, right general Yuan Shao, and Wei general Dong Cheng. ; General Cao Cao of Zhendong, General Han Sui of Zhenxi (may be withdrawn together with Ma Teng), General Lu Bu of Pingdong, General Liu Biao of Annan, General Zhang Yang of Andong, General Duan Yan of Ningji, General Fu Wan of Fuguo Wait, it can be regarded as a "major general".

Although Yuan Shao claimed to be General Chariot and Cavalry, the court never recognized him. His current official rank is General You, who was officially appointed by Emperor Xian around the beginning of this year when Guo Tu was sent as an envoy to Hedong County. Han Xian, Zhang Ji, Guo Si, Ma Teng, Han Sui, Li Le, Hu Cai, Yang Ding, Zhang Yang, and Duan Yao are mostly from the Liangzhou Army and the Baibo Army. People have become enemies of the court, and their appointment should be revoked. Yuan Shao, Lu Bu, Liu Biao, Gongsun Zan and others belonged to the local powerful faction. Although they were not under the control of the imperial court, they had a title. In name, they were all under the leadership of the Xu County imperial court. It was of course good to keep them.Dong Cheng and Fu Wan are both father-in-laws of Emperor Xian, so it doesn't matter whether they hold military positions or not.

According to Cao Cao's intention, Emperor Xian re-clarified the appointment list of senior generals of the empire, those who should be withdrawn, and those who should be kept.The post of commander-in-chief (general) of the national armed forces vacated by Han Siam was awarded to Cao Cao by Emperor Xian. There may be some problems with this appointment, because the status of the general is very high, having surpassed the Sangong, so Yuan Shao was very unconvinced, and because of this appointment, he almost turned his face with Cao Cao. During the process of Emperor Xian's return to the east, many ministers and senior officials died on the road. Cao Cao also made major adjustments to the court's civil service system by filling in the vacancies.

The current three men are Taiwei Yang Biao, Situ Chunyujia, and Sikong Zhang Xi. They all escaped, but Cao Cao wanted to make other arrangements for these positions. At his request, Emperor Xian issued an edict to send these three people away Simultaneously dismissed. Cao Cao gave Yuan Shao the position of Taiwei.After all, Yuan Shao used to be the commander-in-chief of the Kwantung Allied Forces, and he was also his nominal leader. Now that Cao Cao has served as the general, in order to appease Yuan Shao, he gave him the post of Taiwei.Cao Cao gave the post of Situ to Zhao Wen, a famous scholar.Sikong is temporarily vacant.

In the past year, ministerial senior officials who died on the way back to the east include: Minister of Culture and Education (Tai Changqing) Wang Jiang, Minister of Court Affairs (Guanglu Xunqing) Deng Yuan, Commander of the Imperial City Garrison (Wei Wei) Shi Sun Duan , Minister of Justice (Tingwei) Xuan, Minister of Economic Affairs (Da Sinongqing) Zhang Yi, Zhu Jun, Minister of Royal Affairs (Minister Shaofu) Tian Fen. Under the auspices of Cao Cao, the imperial court successively recruited celebrities such as Zhao Qi, Zhang Jian, Huan Dian, Xu, Chen Ji, etc. daily operation. Zhao Qi should be almost ninety years old this year. He is an old minister who has been sent to Kanto. He met Yuan Shao and Cao Cao to welcome Emperor Xian back to Luoyang.Zhang Jian is an old party member, and he is eighty-three years old this year.Chen Ji came from the famous Chen family in Yingchuan County. He is seventy-one years old and has great influence in Xu County. These people are unlikely to do substantive work anymore. For example, when Zhang Jian came to Xu County, he would close the door of his house and hang up the special car provided by the government (close the door and hang the car) without asking any questions. anything.This is also in line with Cao Cao's meaning. The purpose of bringing these old comrades out was just a signboard, and the purpose was to expand the influence of the new court. Cao Cao paid more attention to Shangshutai, the daily office of the imperial court. This is not a fake department. Internal and external communication, and keeping abreast of the dynamics in the palace all depend on it. As for who will be in charge of this key department, Cao Cao already has a suitable candidate in mind. . The person Cao Cao favored was Xun.He used to serve as the palace guard by the emperor's side. He is familiar with the palace affairs. He has a calm personality and considerate issues. . Emperor Xian issued an imperial edict to appoint Xun as the minister, responsible for handling the daily affairs of the court.When Cao Cao was away, Xun actually became the chief steward of the rear.Xun lived up to expectations and handled all affairs in an orderly manner, which relieved Cao Cao of a lot of worries. Cao Cao also sent Zhong Yao to Xun as an assistant, as the deputy chief of Shangshutai (Shangshu Pushe), but Zhong Yao did not hold this position for a long time, and Cao Cao later sent him to manage Guanzhong affairs.Cao Cao also appointed Cheng Yu, a general with a beard, to assist Xun in his work. Although the appointment was made, Cheng Yu was still inseparable from Yanzhou. items. Cao Hong, Cao Ren, and Xiahou Xiahouyuan were responsible for controlling the troops, but they did not enter the imperial court. With the expansion of the scope of "Cao Tong District", Cao Cao also let them hold some local administrative positions. For example, Xiahou served as the prefect of Chenliu County, and Xiahouyuan served as Yingchuan County The prefect, Cao Ren served as the prefect of Guangyang County. After the imperial court moved to Xu County, Luoyang could not give up. At this time, Cao Cao was concurrently serving as the captain of Sili, and Luoyang belonged to his own jurisdiction. He asked Dong Zhao, who had made great contributions to him, to stay in the old capital as the Luoyang order . As for the magistrate of Xu County, Cao Cao asked Man Chong to be in charge. This subordinate who followed him in Yanzhou was very courageous and strategic in dealing with problems.Xu County is equivalent to Luoyang in the past, and the position of Xu County Magistrate must be filled with a powerful role.It was later proved that Cao Cao's appointment was correct, and he was full of favor and fulfilled his mission. As the imperial government began to operate and the territory it controlled was getting bigger and bigger, Cao Cao now felt that the biggest problem was the shortage of talents. He now needed administrative talents, military talents and economic talents, and he urgently hoped that talents with various specialties would arrive soon. From Xu County.