Chapter Summaries

Liu Xie spared Cao Chong from execution and made him a government slave, prompting Jia Xu to worry that the young emperor was becoming too lenient. A secret edict revealed Liu Xie still intended Cao Chong’s death, leaving Jia Xu reassured that the emperor had not changed.

• Xu You explained that he had promised Cao Cao to ask Liu Xie to spare Cao Chong, Cao Cao’s only surviving son.
• Liu Xie heard how Cao Cao had forced the young Cao Chong to behead him and ruled that Cao Chong would live as a government slave.
• Xu You apologized to Jia Xu for agreeing to Cao Cao’s terms, while Jia Xu warned Guo Jia that Liu Xie’s mercy might signal dangerous arrogance.
• Guo Jia decided to urge Liu Xie to reconsider, but Jia Xu told him to wait for a better opportunity.
• Gao Lan delivered Liu Xie’s secret edict to Jia Xu, who read its command to “Cut the weeds and remove the roots” and realized Liu Xie meant for Cao Chong to be killed covertly.

Zhen Mi arrived in Chang'an with her infant son, Liu Jue, and reunited with Liu Xie, who met his child for the first time. After Liu Lingqi taught Liu Xie how to hold the baby, Liu Jue peed on him, and Liu Xie noticed that Zhen Mi seemed to have changed since they last met.

• Jia Xu and Guo Jia bickered as they left the palace after Jia Xu threatened to report Guo Jia's behavior to Liu Xie.
• A month passed as the Han realm continued settling down, and Zhen Mi arrived in Chang'an with Liu Jue.
• Liu Xie embraced Zhen Mi at the palace gates, then eagerly asked to see their son.
• Liu Jue cried in Liu Xie's arms until Lü Lingqi demonstrated how to hold him, then Liu Xie accidentally got soaked when the baby peed.
• Zhen Mi helped Liu Xie change, and he remarked that her personality seemed different from before.

Liu Xie told Zhen Mi that he would make Lü Lingqi empress and appoint Zhen Mi’s son, Jue, crown prince, despite his earlier promise to Zhen Mi. Zhen Mi accepted his decision, and the chapter ended with her leading him into the bedchamber to claim the favor he had offered.

• Liu Xie sent Lü Lingqi and Liu Jue away so he could privately discuss his promise with Zhen Mi.
• Liu Xie told Zhen Mi he would make Lü Lingqi empress and appoint Jue crown prince because the Zhen Clan’s crimes made Zhen Mi’s appointment politically difficult.
• Zhen Mi revealed that she already knew Liu Xie had made the same promise to both her and Lü Bu, and said she understood his decision.
• Zhen Mi reassured Liu Xie that appointing Jue crown prince showed his love for her, and Liu Xie was moved to tears.
• Liu Xie promised to announce Jue’s appointment at court and offered to fulfill another request from Zhen Mi.
• Zhen Mi took Liu Xie by the hand and led him into the bedchamber.

After appointing Lü Lingqi as Empress and Liu Jue as Crown Prince, Liu Xie defended his unconventional succession decision to Guo Jia and Jia Xu. With the realm unified, he began discussing long-awaited reforms to strengthen the Great Han and curb the power of aristocratic clans.

• Liu Xie appointed Lü Lingqi as Empress and Liu Jue as Crown Prince, prompting ministers to urge him to reconsider.
• Guo Jia and Jia Xu warned Liu Xie that separating the Empress's and Crown Prince's positions could fuel a future succession struggle.
• Liu Xie said he had made the appointments to honor his promises and personally cultivate Liu Jue, whose ability would determine whether he could keep the throne.
• Liu Xie told Guo Jia and Jia Xu that he wanted to begin reform now that the realm was unified.
• Liu Xie argued that reform was essential to overcome the Great Han's entrenched abuses and the aristocratic clans' excessive power.

Liu Xie outlined reforms to replace the recommendation system, restructure official ranks, and reform taxes to curb aristocratic land seizures, then discussed the difficulty of breaking the gentry’s control over advancement. The chapter ended with Jia Xu comparing Liu Xie’s proposed imperial examinations to Emperor Ling’s Hongdu School.

• Liu Xie told Jia Xu and Guo Jia that he intended to reform talent selection, official governance, and taxation while proceeding gradually.
• Guo Jia supported the reforms and described how the recommendation system had blocked capable men from humble families, while Jia Xu warned that abolishing it would provoke fierce resistance.
• Liu Xie and his advisers discussed how the gentry had manipulated examinations through control of scriptural interpretation.
• Liu Xie reminded Jia Xu of his proposed imperial examination system, and Jia Xu compared it to Emperor Ling’s Hongdu School.

Liu Xie explained how inexpensive paper, movable-type printing, and a rapid literacy method would make education accessible to common people and support his plan to replace the recommendation system with imperial examinations. Guo Jia and Jia Xu were impressed by the reforms, and Liu Xie continued outlining his universal education plans.

• Liu Xie declared that imperial examinations would be open to common people, and Guo Jia warned that ordinary families could not afford education.
• Liu Xie showed Guo Jia and Jia Xu improved paper made cheaply by the Foundry Bureau and explained how movable-type printing could produce books in large quantities.
• Liu Xie said cheap books and public libraries would broaden access to learning and weaken the aristocratic clans’ monopoly on education, impressing Guo Jia and Jia Xu.
• Liu Xie introduced his Rapid Literacy Method, using phonetic symbols to teach people to recognize characters, and explained the pinyin system to Guo Jia and Jia Xu.
• Guo Jia praised Liu Xie’s ingenuity, and Liu Xie modestly credited the ideas to the wisdom of predecessors.

Liu Xie laid out education and tax reforms after reunifying the Great Han, including public schools, an Imperial Academy, a farmland survey, and a national census. He assigned Guo Jia to recruit Imperial Academy talent and Jia Xu to lead the survey, leaving both men aware of the resistance their work would face.

• Liu Xie proposed training teachers from humble families at the Imperial Academy and establishing public schools, libraries, and book distribution through gradual local trials.
• Liu Xie explained that Yuan Xi was secretly collecting property and payments from clans that had supported the rebels to fund the reforms.
• Liu Xie announced a national farmland survey and census to expose concealed land and populations, insisting the work had to begin while his military power was strongest.
• Liu Xie ordered Jia Xu to direct the Embroidered-Clothes Envoys in the survey and assigned Guo Jia to select talent for the Imperial Academy.
• Guo Jia and Jia Xu discussed the difficulty of their respective assignments as they left the palace.

Guo Jia announced that Liu Xie would reopen the Hongdu School as the Imperial Academy, creating a court-controlled path for selecting and advancing officials. The decree alarmed Yang Biao and Yang Xiu, while Yang Xiu entered the Palace to seek more information.

• Guo Jia and Jia Xu discussed their service to Liu Xie and agreed that Cao Chong had to die quietly to protect the emperor’s reputation.
• Guo Jia announced Liu Xie’s decree reopening the Hongdu School as the Imperial Academy, with students receiving free supplies and studying subjects chosen by the Son of Heaven.
• People in Chang’an argued over whether the Imperial Academy betrayed Confucian learning, while Yang Biao recognized that it would let Liu Xie control advancement outside the aristocratic clans’ recommendation system.
• Yang Biao warned Yang Xiu that the Imperial Academy was likely the beginning of broader reforms that would threaten aristocratic interests.
• Yang Xiu went to the Xuan Room to ask colleagues about the decree and found Zhuge Liang, Lu Su, and the relentlessly hard-working Sima Yi handling government affairs.

Yang Xiu learned about the Imperial Academy’s practical curriculum and worried that it would challenge the established selection system, while Sima Yi left to seek a teaching post after Zhuge Liang revealed he had been invited to lecture. Meanwhile, Liu Xie inspected the military camp as Jia Xu’s proposal for military examinations offered soldiers a new route to promotion in peacetime.

• Lu Su told Zhuge Liang that Xu Shu and Pang Tong would be transferred from Yi Province to the Censorate, where Zhuge Liang would supervise them.
• Yang Xiu questioned whether the Son of Heaven’s appointments and the new Imperial Academy would undermine established rules and the existing selection system.
• Zhuge Liang explained the Academy’s subjects—criminal law, mathematics, engineering and metallurgy, and politics—and said Guo Jia had invited him to teach there.
• Sima Yi reacted with envy to Zhuge Liang’s invitation, left the Xuan Room, and Zhuge Liang guessed he was going to volunteer as a lecturer.
• Yang Xiu and Lu Su declined Zhuge Liang’s suggestion that they teach at the Imperial Academy.
• Liu Xie inspected the military camp while considering Jia Xu’s proposal for military examinations as a peacetime path to promotion for soldiers.

Liu Xie watched the military examination tournament and proposed a match between his generals. Zhao Yun and Huang Zhong began their duel, leaving the contest undecided as the chapter ended.

• Liu Xie approved Jia Xu's proposal for a military examination, and the tournament selected the army's best soldiers from more than ten thousand entrants.
• Zhang Liao identified Liao Hua and Wei Yan as top competitors as they fought an evenly matched bout.
• Lü Bu predicted Wei Yan would win and boasted of his own strength, while Zhang Liao teased him about facing Zhao Yun and Huang Zhong.
• Liu Xie invited the generals to compete but barred Lü Bu, then approved Zhao Yun's challenge to Huang Zhong.
• Zhao Yun and Huang Zhong took the platform, and Huang Zhong charged in while Zhao Yun retreated and swung his spear toward Huang Zhong's head.

Zhao Yun defeated Huang Zhong in a martial contest and received a poem personally written and sealed by Liu Xie as his reward. The other generals clamored for contests of their own, but Liu Xie postponed them and returned to the palace.

• Zhao Yun outlasted Huang Zhong and defeated him after nearly two hundred exchanges, and Huang Zhong conceded.
• Huang Zhong praised Zhao Yun, who modestly argued that the match should not count because his youth gave him an advantage.
• Liu Xie rewarded Zhao Yun with a personally written poem praising his valor, and Zhao Yun accepted it with overwhelming gratitude.
• Lü Bu protested that Liu Xie was favoring Zhao Yun and demanded permission to fight him, while Huang Zhong regretted losing the chance to earn the poem.
• Zhang Liao and the other generals asked Liu Xie to arrange more matches so they could compete for similar honors.
• Liu Xie declined to hold more contests that day and said he had to return to the palace to attend to state affairs.

Liu Xie addressed the Imperial Academy’s shortage of instructors and reassured Guo Jia while Jia Xu prepared a secret survey of farmland and population. At court, Liu Xie proposed establishing a Grand Secretariat with seven Grand Secretaries to review government business before he made final decisions.

• Guo Jia told Liu Xie that the growing Imperial Academy lacked instructors, and Liu Xie urged him to recruit court officials and imprisoned rebels.
• Liu Xie praised Jia Xu’s secret preparations for a farmland survey and population census targeting the great aristocratic families.
• Liu Xie gave Guo Jia his robe and arranged for tonics to be sent to his home, then said it was time to act.
• At morning court, Kong Rong urged Liu Xie to attend more closely to government affairs, and Liu Xie agreed that the existing arrangement needed reform.
• Liu Xie announced that he would establish the Grand Secretariat, with seven Grand Secretaries reviewing and annotating court business before his final decisions.

Liu Xie formally established the Grand Secretariat and announced a land survey and population census to restore tax revenues after years of war. Yang Biao and Yang Xiu were left isolated at court, and Yang Biao resolved to align the Yang Clan with Liu Xie’s plan.

• Liu Xie established the Grand Secretariat with seven academicians, including Guo Jia, Jia Xu, Zhuge Liang, Sima Yi, Yang Xiu, Lu Su, and Fa Zheng, while Xu You was passed over.
• Liu Xie announced that the Embroidered-Clothes Envoys would survey farmland and count the population across the realm, shocking the ministers who feared their families’ hidden land and tenants would be exposed.
• Yang Xiu questioned the sudden decision, but Liu Xie rebuked him and named the Yang Clan as the census’s starting point after Yang Biao pledged its cooperation.
• Cui Yan and Dong Zhong blamed Yang Biao for alienating the scholar-gentry, while the other ministers left him and Yang Xiu isolated.
• Yang Biao told Yang Xiu that he would submit his resignation, but that the Yang Clan had no choice but to stand with Liu Xie and see the decision through.

Liu Xie's land survey exposed extensive concealment by the great clans, while Yang Biao retired after accepting a penalty for the Yang Clan. Lü Bu then visited Liu Xie to request a poem, and Liu Xie began writing one for him.

• Jia Xu and the Tax Bureau investigated the Yang Clan, uncovering concealed land and tenant farmers, and Yang Biao requested retirement after the Son of Heaven imposed a penalty.
• The survey of other major clans uncovered an estimated 270,000 mu of concealed land and more than 40,000 households.
• Jia Xu assured Liu Xie that he could handle resistance to the survey, while Fa Zheng reported that the figures were still being compiled.
• Lü Bu visited Liu Xie and asked him to write a poem, explaining that he envied the honor Zhao Yun had received.
• Liu Xie initially resisted Lü Bu's request, but relented after Lü Bu offered to demonstrate his fighting skills, and began writing while Lü Bu prepared the paper and ink.

Liu Xie gave Lü Bu lyrics for a musical piece honoring him and asked him to send Gao Shun to garrison Ji Province after the New Year’s Banquet. Lü Bu recruited musicians to compose the piece, while Liu Xie’s preparations to protect his reforms from the Great Aristocratic Families continued.

• Liu Xie gave Lü Bu the lyrics for “Duke Wen’s Battle-Formation-Breaking Music” and told him to have musicians set them to music for the New Year’s Banquet.
• Liu Xie asked Lü Bu to send Gao Shun to garrison Ji Province after the banquet to guard against trouble during the farmland survey and census.
• Liu Xie relied on Lü Bu and other trusted commanders, along with the army’s strengthened benefits and pensions, to support his reforms.
• Lü Bu returned home and had Wei Yue bring Chang’an’s finest musical masters to the Grand General’s Residence, where the soldiers had bound them.
• Lü Bu gave the musicians the lyrics and ordered them to compose the piece within a month, threatening them until they agreed.

Cui Yan gathered leaders of the Great Aristocratic Families to discuss the Imperial Court’s land survey, population census, Imperial Academy, and new book production. The clans considered yielding on confiscated land but worried that the Imperial Academy and cheap printed books threatened their influence.

• Lü Bu concluded that the aristocrats needed to be intimidated and went to the military camp to show off to Zhang Liao.
• Dou Fu arrived late at Cui Yan’s secret meeting, objected to the danger of gathering under the Embroidered-Clothes Envoys’ watch, then stayed after Cui Yan challenged him.
• Cui Yan told the gathered clan leaders that his family had lost sixty thousand mu of farmland to the survey and urged them to consider how to respond to the Imperial Court’s reforms.
• Ju Zong, Xun Hong, and Shen Rong argued that the clans should endure the losses and avoid provoking the Son of Heaven, while Cui Yan agreed they could pay to buy land back later.
• Cui Yan warned that the Imperial Academy threatened the clans’ control of official appointments, and Dong Zhong added that cheap paper and books from the Foundry Bureau could also change matters.

The aristocratic clan heads learned that cheap printed books and the Imperial Academy threatened their control of education and advancement. Chen Lin proposed using a student petition and Confucian scholars to pressure the Son of Heaven, while Cui Yan planned to enlist his teacher Zheng Xuan; the group ended hopeful that Zheng Xuan could help them restore Confucian learning’s primacy.

• Dong Zhong showed the clan heads a beautifully bound Book of Songs that cost only a hundred coins and explained how printing and cheaper paper made books affordable.
• Cui Yan warned that the Imperial Academy could undermine the recommendation system, while Dou Fu argued that the clans could neither close it nor control its practical subjects.
• Cui Yan sarcastically challenged the clan heads to let their children compete fairly at the academy, and Chen Lin proposed a joint student petition demanding that Confucian learning become the academy’s primary subject.
• Shen Rong worried that a joint petition might provoke the unyielding Son of Heaven, but Cui Yan said he would ask his teacher Zheng Xuan to remonstrate with him.
• Cui Yan identified Zheng Xuan as a preeminent Confucian scholar, and the clan heads welcomed the plan as their chance to oppose the Imperial Academy’s direction.

Liu Xie learned that Cui Yan had secretly gathered aristocratic clan leaders, but ordered Jia Xu to monitor them rather than arrest them. He also explained his plan to send Zhou Yu’s fleet overseas to find sweet potatoes, then welcomed Lü Lingqi with the soup she had prepared.

• Jia Xu reported that Cui Yan had secretly hosted the clan leaders of the Great Aristocratic Families, and Liu Xie ordered him to keep watch without interfering.
• Jia Xu asked whether Liu Xie was building a navy, and Liu Xie explained that he wanted a fleet to search for sweet potatoes on Luzon Island.
• Liu Xie told Jia Xu that Zhou Yu was assembling an ocean-going fleet to sail after spring began next year.
• Lü Lingqi brought Liu Xie a pot of soup, and Jia Xu tactfully left the Wen Room.
• Lü Lingqi worried that she had interrupted official business, but Liu Xie reassured her and said he was hungry.

Liu Xie shared soup with Lü Lingqi, who urged him to visit the other consorts more often and have more children. As Chang'an debated the Imperial Academy and prepared for the New Year's banquet, Zhang Liao, Huang Zhong, and Zhao Yun ambushed Lü Bu in Chengming Hall.

• Lü Lingqi fed Liu Xie the soup she had made, and he praised her despite its ordinary taste.
• Liu Xie learned that Ying'er and Jue were at Zhen Mi's palace and promised to visit them that night.
• Lü Lingqi encouraged Liu Xie to visit the other consorts and father more children, leaving him coughing in surprise before he agreed to visit them when he had time.
• Jia Xu continued surveilling Cui Yan, Dong Zhong, and the others as public debate over the Imperial Academy intensified ahead of New Year's Day.
• Zhang Liao went to Lü Bu's residence and learned that Lü Bu had already left for the palace; he later entered Chengming Hall with Huang Zhong and Zhao Yun.
• Zhang Liao, Huang Zhong, and Zhao Yun seized Lü Bu at his seat in the banquet hall.

At the New Year's Banquet, Lü Bu presented Liu Xie with a grand performance of the Battle-Formation-Breaking Music, using a thousand soldiers to honor the emperor and the Great Han. Liu Xie rewarded the soldiers and praised Lü Bu, while the officials learned that the music had been composed by the Son of Heaven.

• Zhang Liao tried to uncover Lü Bu's secret plans, but Lü Bu kept quiet and promised everyone would see at the banquet.
• Liu Xie entered Chengming Hall with Empress Lü Lingqi and Zhen Mi, who carried the crown prince, and opened the New Year's Banquet.
• Lü Bu announced a gift for Liu Xie, and Gao Shun led a thousand torch-bearing soldiers into the square outside Chengming Hall.
• The soldiers performed the Battle-Formation-Breaking Music and knelt to wish Liu Xie and the Great Han lasting prosperity.
• Lü Bu explained that he had arranged the performance as a congratulatory gift, and Liu Xie ordered rewards for the soldiers and praised Lü Bu.
• The officials learned that Liu Xie had composed the music, and Lü Bu basked in the court's attention.