After Liu Xiu personally commanded the Battle of Changxi, he left the Kwantung region and returned to Luoyang.

In the next battle, he handed over all the power to Wu Han.

When Liu Xiu returned to Luoyang, Yin Lihua had already given birth and gave birth to a son for Liu Xiu, that is, Liu Xiu's fourth son, but the child had not yet been named.

The appearance of this child inherits the advantages of his parents, the baby's fat little face is round, very cute, thick eyebrows, big eyes, long and upturned eyelashes, and when he blinks, it looks like two small fans.

When Liu Xiu saw the child born by Yin Lihua, she immediately picked it up, and the more she looked at it, the more she liked it, and smiled at Yin Lihua: "Lihua, the child will be named 'Yang'!" ”

Yin Lihua muttered, "Liu Yang." ”

She nodded with a smile and said, "Your Majesty's name is very good. ”

Liu Xiu looked at the baby in her arms and said with a smile: "Yang'er! Yang'er! Ha ha! ”

Liu Xiu laughed, I don't know if his smile infected the baby in swaddling clothes, and Liu Yang, who was only a few months old, also giggled.

I have to say that Liu Xiu's harem is very good at giving birth to children, and Queen Guo Shengtong has given birth to three sons for Liu Xiu in a row, and the noble Yin Lihua gave birth to a son for Liu Xiu in her first child.

Liu Xiu's harem is not big, but he has a lot of sons, and now he has four sons, and there is also a little princess.

On this expedition, the relationship between Liu Xiu and Xi Cheying has improved a lot, and on weekdays, Liu Xiu is also willing to go to Xi Cheying to sit there.

Unlike Guo Shengtong, Yin Lihua, and Xu Xiling, Xi Cheying is very interested in state affairs and military affairs, and is willing to discuss this aspect of affairs with Liu Xiu.

The harem is not allowed to interfere in politics, this is the rule of the Han family, because there have been rebellions in the past, and later generations have taken it as a warning, but it is still okay to chat in private and discuss it.

In fact, being an emperor is also very lonely, staying in the palace all day long, and there are few people who can speak.

Guo Shengtong, Yin Lihua, and Xu Xiling are not interested in these boring state affairs, it is rare that Xi Cheying likes these, and Liu Xiu is also willing to talk and chat with her casually, and listen to Xi Cheying's opinions by the way.

Not long after Liu Xiu returned to Luoyang, he restructured Shangshutai.

Shangshutai is still under the rule of Shaofu, but in fact, Shangshutai is not under the jurisdiction of Shaofu, but is directly responsible to the emperor.

He divided Shangshutai into six Cao, namely the Three Gong Cao, the Officials Cao, the Min Cao, the Host and Guest Cao, the Two Thousand Stone Cao, and the Zhongdu Guancao.

Each Cao set up one Shangshu, collectively known as the six Shangshu.

The leader of Shangshutai is Shangshu Ling, and there is a Shangshu servant shooting under Shangshu Ling, and then below, there are six Shangshu, Shangshu Ling, Shangshu servant shooting plus six Shangshu, these eight are the core personnel of Shangshutai, collectively known as eight.

The power of Shangshutai is all concentrated in the hands of the eight seats, and whenever there is a major event, the eight seats jointly play and discuss with the emperor.

In addition to the eight, Shangshutai also has one left and one right, thirty-six waiters, and twenty-one Lingshi, which is the main body of Shangshutai.

The daily morning court deliberations, that is the big court, and Shangshutai is a small court, Liu Xiu's important resolutions, more and more are in Shangshutai, and the eight jointly discussed and formulated.

Liu Xiu's concentration of state power in Shangshutai is equivalent to concentrating it in his own hands, and the prototype of China's centralized government for thousands of years is also the germ that began to be born from Liu Xiu's period.

The six Caos of Shangshutai's Three Gong Cao, the Ministry of Officials, the Mincao, the Host and Guest Cao, the Two Thousand Stone Cao, and the Zhongdu Guancao are actually the prototypes of the six departments of the Ministry of Officials, the Ministry of Households, the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Punishment, and the Ministry of Industry.

Everything in the world is Shangshu, and the lord (emperor) participates in the decision, which is the lower three mansions (three dukes).

Although the three princes are placed, the matter is returned to the cabinet.

This is Liu Xiu's philosophy of governance.

The three princes of Da Sima, Da Situ, and Da Sikong gradually became dispensable, and only a false name remained, and the resolutions of major national events were basically completed in Shangshutai.

Shang Shutai discussed the decision, and then issued it to the three publics, so that the three princes could implement it specifically.

In layman's terms, Sangong has gradually become a person who does things, and the process of formulating how to do things is no longer involved in it.

On this day, a war report came from the south, and Cen Peng won a great victory in Yiling.

Looking at the battle report from Cen Peng, Liu Xiuxi was overjoyed and couldn't help laughing.

In the battle of Liqiu, Tian Rong was defeated and fled back to Yiling, and Cen Peng led his troops to pursue.

After Tian Rong returned to Yiling, he gathered his troops and horses and fought with Jiangling and Cen Peng in Nanjun.

In this battle, the Han army had 200,000 soldiers and horses, and the Tian Rong army also poured out, and there were 200,000 people.

The battle between the enemy and us, with a total of 400,000 troops, was huge.

In the beginning, the two sides only sent small forces to test each other, and the scale of the battles that took place was also small, and as time went on, the scale of the battles between the two sides became larger and larger.

Although the Han army was menacing, Tian Rong occupied the advantage of geographical advantages, and the two sides won and lost each other, and it was difficult to distinguish between the upper and lower sides.

As the war continued, the Han army's logistical supplies began to be tight.

Cen Peng released the news early, saying that the Han army planned to retreat.

Tian Rong, who heard the news, was overjoyed and stepped up his offensive against the Han army.

In the next few days, the Han army hid in the camp to avoid the battle.

When Tian Rong's offensive eased a little, Cen Peng led the soldiers of the Han army to set up camp and prepare to evacuate the Jiangling area.

These days, Tian Rong is waiting for the Han army to withdraw, he can lead the army to take advantage of the situation to pursue, and now that the Han army has finally withdrawn, how can he let go of this golden opportunity?

Tian Rong led his soldiers to hunt down the Han army.

How do you know that the retreat of the Han army is fake, and it is true to lure the Tian Rong army out of their camp system and lure them to fight on their side.

After that, the soldiers and horses of the two sides collided with each other on the eastern plain of Gangneung.

In this battle, the two feet fought fiercely for two days and two nights, and finally ended with a complete victory of the Han army and the collapse of the entire line of Tian Rong's army.

In the Battle of Jiangling, Tian Rong almost wiped out all his soldiers and horses, and fled to Yiling with only more than 1,000 remnants.

Cen Peng took advantage of the victory to pursue, led the Han army, pursued to Yiling, and once again broke the Tian Rong army and broke through Yiling.

Tian Rong took the remnants and fled from Yiling in a hurry and ran to Zigui County.

Cen Peng did not give up, continued the pursuit, and when he arrived in Zigui County, he defeated Tian Rong again.

After this battle, Tian Rong completely lost his foothold in Nanjun, and only took dozens of remnants to flee west to Shu and go to Gongsun Shu.

And Tian Rong's family members were all captured alive by Cen Pengsheng.

Unlike Wu Han, Cen Peng captured Tian Rong's family and did not kill them all, but had them escorted back to Luoyang and handed over to His Majesty.

After Tian Rong fled, Cen Peng took control of the entire Namgun, and he continued to lead his army to garrison Gangneung.

As for whether to invade Shu, continue to pursue Tian Rong, and fight with Gongsun Shu, this is not up to him, it depends on the decision of the imperial court.

However, during the period when Cen Peng was stationed in Gangneung, he was not idle, and he exchanged letters with his old friend Deng Rang frequently.

At present, Deng Rang holds the position of pastor of Jiaozhou.

Jiaozhou is a region far away from the Tiangao Emperor, and Jiaozhou has jurisdiction over present-day Guangdong, Guangxi, northern Vietnam and central Vietnam, as well as Hainan and other places.

The area is large, but the economy is extremely scarce, and there are many foreign races in the territory.

Originally, Deng Rang was loyal to Liu Xuan, and after Liu Xuan's death, the Red Mei Army entered Chang'an, and then Liu Xiu claimed to inherit the unification.

In the Central Plains, the situation of the changing Great King Banner at the head of the city made Deng Rang not know who he should be loyal to.

At the time of the great chaos in the world, the heroes are fighting at the same time, the warlords are divided, such as the Central Plains such as the Lianghe area, the Kanto and the Guanxi, etc., have already been beaten to the point of blood, and the corpses are all over the field, and Jiaozhou is good here, no one attacked, no one fought, and the heroes of the divided places seemed to collectively forget that there was such a place as Jiaozhou.

Cen Peng also remembered his old friend Deng Rang when he defeated Tian Rong and was stationed in Jiangling.

He wrote a letter to Deng Rang, explaining to Deng Rang the current situation, analyzing the interests and disadvantages to him, weighing the pros and cons, and finally persuading Deng Rang to defect to the Luoyang court and return to the orthodoxy of the Han dynasty.

Deng Rang is not familiar with Liu Xiu, but he has a good relationship with Cen Peng, and he also admires Cen Peng's personality very much.

In the correspondence with Cen Peng, he was gradually moved by Cen Peng's words.

Later, Cen Peng sent Qu Chong, a partial general under his command, to Jiangnan to appease him.

Deng Rang, who learned the news, ordered the Taishou of Nanhai County, Cangwu County, Yulin County, Hepu County, Jiaozhi County, Jiuzhen County, and Rinan County, a total of seven counties, under his rule, to send envoys to Jiangnan to contribute gifts to Qu Chong.

At this point, Jiaozhou officially surrendered to the Luoyang court.

It can be said that Liu Xiu did not use a single soldier, and completely relied on the friendship between Cen Peng and Deng Rang, so he took the entire Jiaozhou without blood.

With the submission of Jiaozhou, Liu Xiu except for Zhang Bu's Qingzhou, Lu Fang's Bingzhou, Kuihuan's Liangzhou, and Gongsun Shu's Yizhou, most of the thirteen states in the world have been under Liu Xiu's control.

Counting the areas controlled by Liu Xiu, Jizhou and Youzhou, were obtained by Liu Xiu after defeating Wang Lang, as well as many rebel armies such as Tongma, Red Eyebrows, and Five Schools; In the Sili region, Liu Xiu defeated Chimei; Yuzhou was won by Liu Xiu to defeat Liu Yong; Jingzhou was won by Liu Xiu defeating Deng Feng, Qin Feng, Tian Rong and others; Yanzhou and Xuzhou were won by Liu Xiu defeating Dong Xian; Yangzhou was won by Liu Xiu to pacify the local separatist forces.

Only Emperor Tiangao's distant Jiaozhou relied on the good relationship between Cen Peng and Deng Rang to let Liu Xiu not fight a battle and get it smoothly.

Thirteen state capitals, now Liu Xiu has accounted for nine of them, the group of heroes is divided, and the situation of constant melee has gradually become clear and clear, Liu Xiu stands out among the heroes, and the family is dominant.

Of course, until this period, Liu Xiu was still a long way from unifying the whole country, with Zhang Bu in the east of Luoyang, Kui Huan in the west, Lu Fang in the north, and Gongsun Shu in the south.

The strength of each of these four strong enemies should not be underestimated.

Even Lu Fang, the weakest among them, has the Huns behind him to support him.

In addition, Gongsun Shu relied on the natural dangers of Shu and continued to grow bigger and stronger in Yizhou, and it is not an exaggeration to describe Luoyang's henchmen.