A month later, the seven prefectures of Qing, Xu, Yan, Henan, He, You, and Hebei were all pacified, and the situation of separating the heroes formed by Dong Zhuo's chaotic government finally ended, and the Han Dynasty was reunited. The captured soldiers of Cao Cao and Yuan Shao were deported back to their hometowns after registration, and the people who fled to the mountains to escape the war also returned to their homes one after another, and the northern states regained some popularity.

In order to find out the background of the families in the northern prefectures, officials sent to various counties and counties carried out various registration work, covering almost all aspects related to people's livelihood, from the property of the government to the household registration of the population and the ownership of land. Although the final registration results have not yet come out, the feedback still surprises Liu Xin.

Land annexation in the north was much more serious than in the south, and more than 90 percent of the land was in the hands of the nobles. Excluding Yuan Shao, Cao Cao, and their confiscated lands, the northern scholars still controlled 70% of the land.

Population is also a big problem, after estimation, the population of the whole country is about 45 million, compared with the 56 million during the Ling Emperor period, a decrease of more than 10 million people. In fact, if it weren't for Liu Xin's unification of the whole country so quickly, the population would have plummeted. Historically, when the Three Kingdoms returned to the Jin Dynasty, the population of the whole country was only 26 million, less than half of that of the late Han Dynasty, so that Sima Yan had to introduce policies to encourage the people of the south to move to the north.

Most people did not die directly from the war, but from the side effects of the war – famine and pestilence. However, Liu Xin was prepared.

Although Liu Xin particularly emphasized the development of commerce, he also knew that the people took food as their heaven, and agricultural production did not dare to relax for a moment. Since the beginning of the previous year, Liu Xin has organized manpower to reclaim many paddy fields in the south of the Yangtze River, and planted a large number of rice varieties by using the excellent rice varieties provided by the research institute. Now that the grain has been shipped to the northern states, it is guaranteed that no one will die of famine until next autumn's harvest.

The medical school has also produced a large number of highly skilled doctors in recent years. Whenever Liu Xin occupied a city, he would send doctors, set up a medical center in the city, and at the same time distribute medicines from all over the country. With these life-saving doctors, there is no need to worry about causing a plague epidemic.

These things do not need to be handled by Liu Xin personally, and the cabinet and the six ministries have already made proper arrangements in accordance with their respective responsibilities. Liu Xin was worried about the large amount of land controlled by the northern scholars, and how to solve this problem, Liu Xin handed it over to the cabinet.

The power of the northern scholars far exceeds that of the southern scholars, and if they forcibly expropriate their land as they did against the southern scholars, it will inevitably cause a strong backlash from them, bring turmoil to the entire society, and the north that has just been pacified will be chaotic again, these are all things that Liu Xin does not want to see, and Fu Zhu and others are also very clear.

After some discussion, the cabinet finally came up with a compromise plan to let the northern nobles take half of their respective lands. However, these lands were not contributed to the imperial court in vain, and the imperial court would pay according to the market price.

Although thirty-five percent of the land in the seven northern states was a rather huge number, it was quite cost-effective for the imperial court to purchase at this time. Because of the years of war, the price of land, as a real estate that cannot be taken away, has plummeted, and the burden on the imperial court will be reduced a lot. Moreover, Kuai Yue also came up with a way that the imperial court would only pay half of the money, and the other half would be deducted from the taxes for the next three years. Liu Xin was actually not very satisfied with this compromise, but he could only make a compromise.

After a few more days, Chang'an City began to get busy, and a large number of captives from the grassland tribes were brought back, these people were men, women, and children, and were the families of the leaders of the tribes, both Xianbei and Wuhuan, and some other small tribes. Liu Xinjun and his ministers gathered in the Taimiao Temple to hold a ceremony to sacrifice prisoners, which was unprecedented.

The temple of Chang'an City has been destroyed in the war as early as the beginning of the rebellion, and the temple of Luoyang City was also burned by Dong Zhuo, and the current temple was rebuilt by Liu Xin under the order of the Ministry of Industry. Different from the past, although this temple occupies a large area, it is not as brilliant as before, it is very simple, but it also looks very solemn.

The whole temple is composed of three halls, the middle hall naturally enshrines the tablets and portraits of the emperors of the Han Dynasty, and the left hall enshrines the portraits of the heroes and famous generals of the past dynasties since the founding of the Han Dynasty. This is Liu Xin was inspired by the twenty-four heroes of the Lingyan Pavilion of Taizong of the Tang Dynasty in later generations, the slight difference is that no matter what kind of heroes, their portraits are only eligible to be hung in this hall after their death.

Liu Xin listed all the heroes and famous generals since the founding of the Han Dynasty, just to create an atmosphere that will last for centuries and inspire people today to work hard in this direction. Everyone wants to go down in history and be admired by thousands of people. However, Liu Xin stipulated that the living people could not be listed, which reminded those ministers that they must always maintain self-discipline, otherwise they would not have this opportunity if they were not guaranteed in the evening.

It has been more than 400 years since the founding of the Han Dynasty, and there are countless heroes and famous generals, but there are very few who can be included in the Meritorious Pavilion. However, Liu Xin was very tolerant of the old ministers who helped him fight the world, and publicly announced that as long as they did not violate the law of the country, they would have a chance to be among them. For example, Kuai Liang, who died of illness as early as Xiangyang, his portrait is now hanging in the Pavilion of Meritorious Heroes. There are also Shi Jian and Wang Wei who died in the battle to stop Yan Liang, and their portraits are also hung inside.

What is even more surprising is that in a large hall on the right, the names of many small people are displayed. These little people were all sacrificed in previous battles, including soldiers of major legions and phantom spies, ordinary people, and even Huns who served as guides for the Han army. These people are insignificant, but their names are now engraved on stone tablets. Liu Xin just wants to tell everyone that even if you are just a small person, as long as you sacrifice for the interests of the Han country and nation, you will be immortal.

Although the ceremony of sacrificing prisoners can boost the people's morale and deter the ill-intentioned petty people, Liu Xin still chose to keep a low profile. Only five cabinet scholars, six scholars, and the chief and deputy commanders of the major legions participated in the ceremony, as well as three patriarchs from the small tribes of the Mobei grassland, and only Hu Chuquan, who had already joined the Han Dynasty, was invited. As for the ordinary officials, ordinary people, and soldiers of the major legions, they did not participate in this grand ceremony.

Liu Xin's selection of personnel to attend the ceremony was carefully considered. This time, the gradually divided Han Dynasty was reunified, and the grasslands in the north were also completely incorporated into the territory of the Han Dynasty. And Hu Chuquan and the patriarchs of those small tribes are all representatives of the nomadic peoples of the grassland, so that they can witness the strength of the Han Dynasty and make them no longer dare to resist.

Originally, such a grand ceremony should have invited the heads of the countries of the Western Regions, as well as Dawan, Kangju, and Guishan, to participate. But Dahan has just calmed down from **, and what he needs most is to recuperate, which is inseparable from the support of funds. And the wealth brought by the trade routes of the West was urgently needed to revive the economy of the northern states of the Han Dynasty.

Liu Xin wanted to show the gentle side of the Han to the West, and didn't want to provoke them by offering prisoners, so he chose to keep a low profile.

But no matter how low-key, some basic rituals are still necessary. The three brothers who were sacrificed as captives were the three brothers, Kuitou, Fu Luohan, and Budugen, as well as their wives and children, but only the three brothers who would actually be beheaded.

The three Xianbei chieftains were the first to be escorted into the square in front of the main hall, and in order to prevent them from screaming and scolding before they died, they all stuffed walnuts in their mouths. Originally, they would have been executed by Ling Chi, because the new Han law had abolished the torture and allowed them to escape.

Although there is no need to accept Ling Chi's suffering, Liu Xin will not give them a good time. After the three brothers were tied to a wooden post, their wives and children were brought in. All women, adult and young, beautiful or ugly, had their faces tattooed, and their minor children and grandchildren were subjected to palace punishment. These people will remain in the temple forever as slaves.

The three brothers were so angry that they couldn't even scold their wives and children when they saw their wives and children being humiliated in front of them. Fortunately, Liu Xin didn't plan to torture them much, and when their wives and children were tortured, he ordered the three of them to be beheaded, and their heads were enshrined in front of the spiritual thrones of the emperors of the Han Dynasty.

After dealing with the three Kuitou brothers, Liu Xin waved his hand and asked Hu Chuquan and the patriarchs of the three small tribes to be invited out, and then ordered Yuan Shao, Cao Cao and Liu Biao to be brought up, as well as their subordinates. Except for Xun Yu, Xun You's uncle and nephew, Xun Chen, and Guo Tu, who were deported back to Yingchuan, the rest of the people have been locked up in the prison of Chang'an City, and Liu Xin neither executed them nor interrogated them, just waiting for this day of the prisoner sacrifice ceremony. However, no matter how you say it, this is also an internal matter of the Han nation, so Liu Xin invited them out of Huchuquan.

Just after being escorted into the square and seeing the three headless corpses tied to the wooden pillar, Xu You, Feng Ji, and Chen Qun all quickly knelt down, kowtowed again and again, and said: "Your Majesty spares your life, the ministers are only bewitched by Yuan Shao, and they don't really want to go against Your Majesty, and the ministers are willing to submit to Your Majesty and serve Your Majesty!" ”

The judge on the side spat fiercely and scolded: "Soft bones! ”

But Xiahou Xuan, Xiahou Yuan, and Liu Ye behind Cao Cao sneered and did not speak. Cao Cao, who was walking in the front, looked calm, Yuan Shao still held his arrogant head high, and only Liu was like ashes, shaking his head and sighing.