The Tang Dynasty started from saving Empress Changsun

Five surnames and seven wang, what they represent is not only the interests of their own family, but also a symbol of the powerful class of the entire gentry.

It is not an exaggeration to say that more than half of the officials in the world have relations with them.

Although Li Shimin was constantly promoting officials from civilian backgrounds, he could not fundamentally reverse this situation until the academic and political system and the imperial examination system really took off.

Later, he won over the noble class with military merits by enfeoffment, and severely hit the arrogance of the gentry in terms of arrogance.

But for the gentry, there is still no injury. The reputation they have built up for hundreds of years cannot be broken so easily.

Even if the emperor found an excuse to kill a group of people who were close to the gentry, and even Cui Gan was killed by hitting a pillar, the prestige of the gentry still remained.

In many people's eyes, the gentry is still a gentry, but now it's just that the emperor's prestige is too high, and they are unwilling to go head-to-head and choose to stay dormant.

Once the gentry really risk their lives, they are capable of shaking the foundation of the world and even changing the dynasty.

No one believed that the emperor dared to attack them directly.

However, things were always so unexpected. If the emperor didn't make a move, it would be a thunderbolt, and the main line of the Wang family in Taiyuan would be wiped out.

The world was shocked.

Then everyone began to wait for the reaction of the gentry, but the result disappointed everyone, and the powerful gentry collectively lost their voices.

This has also made more and more people realize that the sky has changed... No, or the sky has changed a long time ago, but they didn't realize it.

There are also those who are not reconciled, thinking that the gentry are not moving, but are preparing for a big counterattack, but they just need time to prepare.

This statement was endorsed by many people, and even Li Shimin was a little apprehensive.

His fear of the gentry is very deep, which is why he sent five generals to sit in the place before moving the Taiyuan Wang family.

Chen Jingke sneered at this, and said: "You think highly of them too...Let's just say, they didn't have any plans, and the reason why they didn't respond was because they woke up from the dream."

Li Shimin asked suspiciously: "Awakened from the dream? What do you mean?"

Chen Jingke said: "I once saw an analysis on the gentry in my family. I forgot the specific content, but I still remember the general context. You will understand as soon as I talk about it."

Hearing that the analysis was written by his family, Li Shimin immediately became interested and said, "Hurry up."

Chen Jingke immediately recounted the so-called analysis report.

In fact, there is no analysis report, it is just an article I saw when I was chatting with people on the Internet, the general idea is:

The aristocratic family has a long history, and they have existed since the day when human civilization was recorded, and they have always existed as rulers.

But the entire family history can be divided into two stages, before the Sui and Tang Dynasties and after the Song Dynasty.

In the dynasties before the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the family and the emperor basically ruled the world together.

At this time, the aristocratic family was indeed powerful, relying on monopolizing knowledge to control the channels of becoming an official.

Then he used his status as an official to develop his own family, allowing the family to grow and further monopolize knowledge.

They not only monopolize knowledge, but also have their own tenant farmers, private soldiers, manor fortresses and so on.

At that time, when a family married a daughter, there could be tens of thousands of servants in the dowry alone.

It can be said that every family is equivalent to a small country within a country.

After the Song Dynasty, the academy system allowed learning to enter the people, breaking the monopoly of the gentry on knowledge, coupled with the existence of imperial examinations to obtain scholars, the combination of the two completely eliminated the aristocratic family.

The influence of the landlord and gentry class that emerged later was only in the township and county, and it was not the same as the aristocratic family.

The Sui and Tang Dynasties are the transitional stage of the family from glory to extinction.

The imperial court has used various methods to limit their strength, such as not allowing them to have private soldiers, not allowing them to build fortresses and manors in places, and so on.

In the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty even nationalized all hermits and tenant farmers belonging to the nobles, and ordered the demolition of all unofficial military buildings such as Wubao.

Although Yang Guang bears the name of a faint king, he has been implementing the ideas of Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty and attacking the gentry.

It's just that he used too much force, and gave up on himself if the situation was a little wrong, and finally caused the death of Sui Dynasty II.

However, after the suppression of the two generations of monarchs in the Sui Dynasty, the gentry basically lost their military capabilities.

By the time of the Tang Dynasty, their so-called strength had changed from the previous dual strength of military culture to pure cultural influence.

As we all know, cultural power is also called soft power.

On the other hand, learning gradually flowed into the people, and more and more scholars came out of poor families and ordinary people, and they began to have a certain degree of competitiveness.

Years of turmoil have also given poor families and civilians the opportunity to fight for military merits, creating a large number of military nobles to compete with them.

In fact, by this time, the powerful gentry no longer had the strength of their ancestors, and their status was more touted by others.

And those who praise them are the gentry all over the world.

Why?The gentry are naturally unwilling to lose the power in their hands, so they must elect a few leaders to fight for power for everyone.

Five surnames and Qiwang, who have a long history and strong strength, were elected.

But the five surnames and seven wang who have only soft power left are really so powerful, can they even despise the imperial power?impossible.

The reason why they dare to despise Li Tang's royal family is because Li Tang has already established a unified country, and his primary task is stability, so naturally he doesn't want to touch them casually.

The emperor didn't want to touch them casually, so he gave them a chance to raise their own value.

In fact, with Li Shimin's control over the army, if he really went all out to attack the gentry, they would be a group of lambs waiting to be slaughtered, with no room for resistance.

This post is not all speculation, but also gave actual examples.

When did the aristocratic family, especially the five surnames and Qiwang perish?The answer is the end of the Tang Dynasty.

First, Huang Chao's "I will kill the flowers after the flowers bloom", cleaned up all the gentry and powerful people in the capital.

Then it was Zhu Wen's turn. This man hated the nobles very much, especially the five surnames and Qiwang.

After he took power, he directly ordered that all people with five surnames and Qiwang origins, no matter whether it was the main vein or the branch veins, should sink into the Yellow River.

They killed their family members in one go, almost cutting off the ancestral hall.

Is there anyone to fight for them at this time?No.

The imaginary situation where one hair will affect the whole body, damage five surnames and seven Wangs, and half of the scholars in the world will rebel has not occurred.

Everyone is sweeping the snow in front of the door and taking care of others.

Zhu Wen's example tells everyone a truth. The reason why the five surnames and Qiwang dare to be so arrogant is entirely because of the lack of an emperor who is willing to go out.

If they really encountered a disregarded emperor attacking them, not many people would stand up to help them, let alone rebel in order to rescue them.

More people will choose to sit on the sidelines, or even kneel and lick the emperor in turn.Because the aristocratic family is to some extent like a wall, they will lick whoever is strong.

Therefore, the so-called influence of the Five Surnames and Seven Wangs is completely touted by everyone, and it is not that strong.

The value of some things comes more from the consensus of everyone. Of course, the high status of the five surnames and Qiwang is due to factors such as long-standing family traditions.

But more people in the world jointly lifted them to this position.

Marrying a wife should marry a woman with five surnames.

Is it true that a daughter with five surnames and seven hopes is so good and noble?
No, it's like a certain commodity, everyone thinks it's worth it, and when they are proud of owning it, it's worth it.

Diamonds are the best example. The content of diamonds in the earth is so huge that only the diamonds that can be mined on the surface can turn it into the price of ordinary crystals.

However, there is a group that has been hyping for a hundred years, and manipulating the market to restrict mining, abruptly hyping a thing that should have been popular into a rare treasure.

People all over the world have been brainwashed by the group hyping diamonds, subconsciously ignoring its reserves.I wholeheartedly think that this kind of thing is expensive, so it should be worth so much money.

When everyone thinks it is valuable, then it is really valuable.

The same goes for women with five surnames. When everyone thinks it is an honor to marry them, they become a status symbol.

This is how the status of the Five Surnames and Seven Wangs came about. When everyone in the world thinks that their family has a long heritage, profound family knowledge, and talented people, they should enjoy this kind of honor, and their status will be infinitely elevated.

In fact, they are just blown up soap bubbles, which will shatter at the touch of anyone who dares to poke them.

The above is the general content of that post.

When I first saw this post, Chen Jingke also admired the person who posted it, the angle was too tricky.

Then he sprayed the man.

What are you talking about, a huge power that even the emperor is afraid of becomes blown out of your mouth?

Also, the Tang Dynasty lacked decisive emperors. Where did you put Li Yuan, Li Shimin, Li Zhi, Wu Zetian, Li Longji and other emperors?
Do you dare to say that they are cowardly?Why didn't they start with Five Surnames and Seven Wangs?

It's not just Chen Jingke alone. Nine out of ten people who read this post are scolding the person who posted it.

Anyone who reads more history books will not come up with such a naive point of view.

But after traveling through time and seeing Datang's situation in person, he realized how correct what that person said in his post.

The five surnames and Qiwang are puffy. If the emperor is really determined to be cruel, they will reveal their secrets.

In particular, the emperor's several innovations were to break the foundation of the gentry, and they retreated again and again, and the so-called counterattack was neither painful nor itchy.

It made Chen Jingke realize this.

Of course, the main reason why the gentry's counterattack was so weak was that Li Shimin used enfeoffment to win over the military nobles.

But no matter what the reason is, in fact, the gentry is not as powerful as it appears.

Chen Jingke eloquently explained the content of that post, and he could talk about it again.

At the end, he concluded: "Now the sage has told everyone with a butcher's knife that the five surnames and seven hopes are nothing more than that."

"It was only after the bubble was punctured that everyone discovered that it was just a mass of air inside, and the image of the gentry being superior was broken."

"The myth that the Five Surnames and Seven Wangs have been operating for dozens of hundreds of years is almost shattered, and everyone has re-realized that imperial power is inviolable."

"Thus, those scumbags changed their appearance overnight and became the loyal ministers and filial sons of the Tang Dynasty."

"That's why all the aristocratic families remained indifferent when the sage destroyed the Taiyuan Wang family."

"They are not engaging in any conspiracy, but simply recognize the reality and are powerless."

Li Shimin was also very excited when he heard it, and couldn't help sighing: "Wonderful, your elder's analysis has exhausted the essence of the gentry."

Then he glared at Chen Jingke and said angrily, "Why didn't you tell me this analysis earlier? If I knew this earlier, I wouldn't have so much trouble."

Chen Jingke said aggrievedly: "Didn't you think of it... Besides, even if I told you at the time, you might not believe it."

Li Shimin said unreasonably: "How do you know that I don't believe it? Anyway, it's your fault for not telling me earlier."

Chen Jingke rolled his eyes and said, "Okay, okay, what you said is right, it's all my fault."

Li Shimin couldn't help laughing, and said: "But it's not too late to say it now, I will be more confident when I deal with the nobles."

Chen Jingke reminded: "This analysis is just a guess, and it may not be correct. The saints need to take more precautions, so as not to give them an opportunity."

Li Shimin nodded and said: "I understand, no matter how careful you are at a time like this, that's why I sent five generals to the local government."

"And I have also ordered officials from all over the country to strictly control and report to the court at any time if there is any disturbance."

"The troops stationed at key points and towns are also on standby at all times, even if there is a rebellion, they can be wiped out as quickly as possible."

Chen Jingke praised: "The sage is wise."

Li Shimin smiled and said: "It's rare, it's so rare to hear a flattering statement from you."

Chen Jingke continued to praise: "Seeing what you said, in my heart, you are the most wise and powerful monarch in the world, and you are also an emperor through the ages."

Li Shimin raised a black line on his forehead, and said, "Stop it, it's the same as cursing when you say flattery words from your mouth."

Chen Jingke pretended to be heartbroken, and said: "Your Majesty, you hurt my heart so much. My admiration for you is like the water of the Yellow River, or..."

Li Shimin interrupted: "Stop, don't flatter me, you are really not this kind of material. If you have anything to say, just say it directly, don't talk about it."

Chen Jingke no longer pretended, and said with a serious face: "I heard that the stronghold of the gentry in Chang'an was also taken away?"

Li Shimin nodded and said, "Naturally, at about the same time as in Taiyuan, all the people sent by the gentry to sit in the town were arrested. Why do you ask this?"

Chen Jingke said: "I want to ask the sage for someone."

Li Shimin already knew who he wanted, and couldn't help frowning: "Wang Xiuqi is the direct manipulator of this case, which is very important."

Chen Jingke said: "Don't lie to me, it doesn't matter whether the messenger is Wang Xiuqi or someone else from the Wang family. Everyone has already been caught, and a confession is not easy."

"If you don't give it to me, go find my aunt. Anyway, she promised before that she will deal with Wang Xiuqi to me."

Li Shimin said helplessly: "A dignified man will complain to Guanyin's maidservant, what is your future like?"

Chen Jingke said indifferently: "Whatever I want in front of my aunt, you can say whether I will give it or not."

Li Shimin wrote a note and threw it to him, and said angrily, "Here, take it and get the hell out of here."