Neon Clothes and Iron Clothes

The battles and killings and intrigues in the first half of life were just a last resort, to prepare for the construction and development in the second half of life. As a time traveler, Wang Wenzuo hopes to leave a reputation in history as a "legislator, builder, and navigator" instead of being as illustrious in martial arts as Timur and Temujin, leaving only bones and bones behind him. Conqueror of ruins.

"General, there is an urgent message from Murong Mu in Chang'an!" An attendant reported.

"Well, let the messenger come in!" Wang Wenzuo nodded. As his eyes and ears in Chang'an, Murong Mu would regularly send briefings from Chang'an to inform the court of the current situation. Considering what happened to Liu Peiji not long ago, this urgent letter included It should be related to this aspect, but I don’t know what it is specifically.

"Liu Peiji was assassinated at the gate of the square. He was hit by two arrows. His life and death are unknown!"

Just after reading two lines, Wang Wenzuo couldn't help but take a breath. This was completely unexpected. Who would assassinate Liu Peiji at this juncture? In an instant, he realized that from a common sense point of view, he was the biggest suspect, even though he knew that he did not do it.

"The emperor ordered Hu Liang to stay behind closed doors!" Wang Wenzuo breathed a sigh of relief when he saw this: "The emperor has learned through experience. It is best to be quiet at this time, lest anything else happens at this juncture!" Again Seeing the letter mentioning Hou Ying's handling of Liu Peiji's assassination, Wang Wenzuo smiled and said: "That's right, Murong Mu didn't forget to recommend talents at this time. Well, this is the magnanimity of a superior. Our career requires thousands of people." There are thousands of capable people, this waiting camp is good, he will not make a mess when facing big events, and handle things calmly, he is a useful person!" As he spoke, he picked up his pen and wrote down this person's name on the screen behind him.

Seeing the inference of the mastermind mentioned by Murong Mu at the end of the letter, Wang Wenzuo fell into deep thought. As Murong Mu inferred in his letter, the assassination of Liu Peiji may not be that simple. If a third party who does not know the details behind the scenes is asked to judge, the most instinctive reaction is to think that he is the mastermind behind the assassination. The messenger is yourself. And this will undoubtedly destroy the already extremely fragile trust relationship between the imperial court and itself, and even trigger a new civil war. No matter who is the final winner of this civil war, the original Tang Empire will be destroyed from now on. Some peaks fell down and were shattered to pieces. This was something neither he nor Li Hong wanted to see. So, who was the mastermind behind this?
"Tubo people? It's possible; Turkic rebels? It's also possible; Haidong's dissatisfied elements against itself? It's also possible, dissatisfied elements within the Tang Dynasty? It doesn't seem impossible..." Wang Wenzuo's brushstrokes moved across the white paper, Leave every possible object behind and try to find the final answer by elimination method. But he soon gave up. The reason was simple. He found that there were too many people who were eager to provoke a civil war and he couldn't find them at all.

He sadly discovered that in today's East Asian world, there are too many people who are eager for the outbreak of civil war. Through Emperor Taizong, Duke Wei, Duke Yingying, Su Dingfang, Qibi Heli, Xue Rengui and himself and other generals and half After centuries of hard work, the Tang Empire became so powerful in the East Asian world that it no longer had any enemies that could rival it. Especially myself, after nearly twenty years of hard work, not only did I uproot Goguryeo, the king of Liaodong, which straddled Liaodong and the Korean Peninsula, but also Baekje, Silla, and the Japanese country separated by the sea. In order to prevent the great riots of the Mohe people and the Goguryeo remnants that spread throughout the Northeast region, the border of the Tang Dynasty has actually been pushed to the coast of the Sea of ​​Japan (if the four Japanese islands are not included), semi-permanently solving the problem of the Tang Dynasty. Worry about looking eastward. Although after the Hebei Rebellion, Datang's income from the Hebei region was greatly reduced, considering that it would only have to deal with enemies in the west in the future, the Chang'an court's relative power against the enemies in the west actually increased.

A strong country is originally a good thing, but the problem is that the Tang Empire inherited the political traditions of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and was a highly aristocratic society. In other words, it was a society that valued reincarnation skills. Some book friends may say that the Tang Dynasty already had an imperial examination system, but there is a big difference between the imperial examination system and the imperial examination system. If it is explained that the imperial examination system was the main way to select officials in the Qing Dynasty, then the imperial examination system in the Tang and Song Dynasties only It is just a supplement to the selection of officials. Take the Tang Dynasty as an example. In the Tang Dynasty, a total of 268 subjects were held to recruit Jinshi, and 7448 Jinshi were admitted. On average, there were only 29 people in each subject. On the other hand, in the Ming Dynasty, a total of 24589 Jinshi were admitted, with an average of only 90 people each year. , three times that of the Tang Dynasty.

What's worse is that in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, as long as they passed the Jinshi exam, they would definitely be awarded an official position; while in the Tang Dynasty, even if they passed the Jinshi exam, they would only be qualified to be an official. If you want to be an official, you must pass the re-examination held by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and pass the four major items of "body, speech, writing, and judgment", that is, physical appearance, oral expression ability, calligraphy level, and judgment (i.e., the diction of judging cases). Only after passing the test can you be appointed as an official. . The Civil Service Examination is very difficult, especially the last of the four items. The Judgment Test tests the candidates' specific administrative and judicial abilities, and the test questions are specific government affairs. For example, "A's cow gored B's cow to death, and B demanded compensation from A. A said it was gored to death while grazing in the wild, and requested half-price compensation, but B disagreed. How should the case be decided?"; "Zhang is going to marry off his daughter. To Zhao, Zhao had already given a betrothal gift, but Zhang regretted it again, so Zhao went to the government to sue Zhao for breaking the engagement, but Zhang said there was no marriage contract. How should this case be decided?"

It is very difficult for candidates with no specific administrative experience to pass exams like this. Even if they pass, the official position they get is only a low-level official of the ninth rank or from the ninth rank. Unlike the Ming and Qing Dynasties, those who won the Jinshi can go to Hanlin Those who work as a concubine in the hospital and hope to study, almost start from the rank of seventh-grade county magistrate, and the promotion speed is super fast, and the lower limit is extremely high. According to statistics, only 15% of the officials in the Tang Dynasty came from imperial examinations, and most of the rest came through secret or recommendation. Therefore, in the Tang Dynasty, for most middle- and lower-class scholars, studying books at home to take the imperial examination was not as good as going to Chang'an to study and gamble on character, to see if they could get into the arms of the emperor's relatives and be recommended for official positions.

Under this situation, it is not difficult to understand why the rebels of the Tang Dynasty will always have no shortage of ambitious and humble scholars as staff in their shogunate. Not to mention scholars from poor families, even a talented person like Du Fu who was talented in literature (no need to explain) and came from a high family (mother Cui, her surname is Du, Wei Du in the south of the city, went to Tianchi Wu), failed to succeed after repeated attempts, and got into the fourth grade. He was not allowed to serve as an official until he was thirteen years old. It was not until the Anshi Rebellion broke out that he changed his luck and defected to Suzong, and was awarded the title of Zuo Shiyi, so Du Fu was also called Du Shiyi. It is not difficult to imagine that if there had not been the Anshi Rebellion, Du Fu would probably have been wandering back and forth at the bottom of the Tang Dynasty's bureaucratic machinery throughout his life, with no chance of getting ahead.

The same goes for Li Bai. His background is not as good as Du Fu. His best opportunity in his career is actually the Yongwang Rebellion after the Anshi Rebellion. The envoys from the East Road of Lingnan and the West Road of Jiangnan in central Guizhou and Jiangnan West Road, as well as the governor of Jiangling County, Yongwang Li Lin, created a situation. Then Li Bai, who was in the Yongwang shogunate at that time, could naturally rise to the top, and his future was limitless. Come on!
Of course, Du Fu would not expect the Anshi rebels to rise just to stand out for himself, but he would not do it, which does not mean that others would not. In today's Tang Dynasty, anyone with a sound mind would not jump out to try the sword of the Tang army with overwhelming martial virtue, but many people have the ambition to expect Wang Wenzuo to raise an army, fight between the east and west, and then profit from the chaos. It is really difficult to find the real mastermind among these people.

"What a hell!" Wang Wenzuo dropped the pen in his hand and said with a wry smile: "With dry firewood all over the ground like this, how did Li Linfu and Yang Guozhong wait until sixty or seventy years before they started the Anshi Rebellion? I originally thought they were They are a group of traitorous ministers who have brought disaster to the country. Now it seems that I am not as good as them! At least they will not lead troops to attack Chang'an City!"

"It seems that this matter must be given to Murong Mu with greater power, so that he can find out the truth of this matter as soon as possible! As for the emperor, I must also communicate with him and show my sincerity to avoid misunderstandings!" Wang Wenzuo He thought to himself: "After all, neither I nor he want a civil war to break out! So how can we show sincerity?" At this time, Wang Wenzuo fell into deep thought.

"General!" The voice of the entourage interrupted Wang Wenzuo's thoughts.

"What's the matter?" Wang Wenzuo raised his head.

"My lady's maid is outside, asking if you would like to come back for dinner tonight!"

"Have dinner?" Wang Wenzuo looked at the sky outside and found that it was already sunset before he knew it. He nodded: "Tell the visitor that I will go back to the inner house for dinner tonight!" Inner house.

"Madam, the general said that he will go back to the mansion for dinner later!" The maid in green bowed her head and bowed to Cui Yunying.

"Oh? Okay!" Cui Yunying beamed when he heard this: "Go and tell the kitchen and ask Master Chen to cook three more dishes. One is fried chicken with mushrooms, one is mutton in a basin, and one is fresh fish. These are all the general's favorites. The food is all ready, the general will cook it as soon as he comes in, so you can eat what’s freshly cooked!”

"Yes, ma'am!"

Cui Yunying breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the entire house moving under his orders. As her husband's status and power in his hands continued to rise, Cui Yunying also rose step by step, but she still had a problem in her heart, that is, her and her husband's sons were still too young, and Wang Wenzuo and other women's sons They have gradually grown up, and some have even taken charge of their own business. Then, a hundred years from now, will my husband’s children be forced to invade and kill by these powerful brothers?
This nightmare has always troubled Cui Yunying, but she did not dare to mention it to her husband because she knew very well that she could not get the answer she wanted from her husband. The reason is simple. Except for Yanliang, who was born with the right to claim Japan, her husband treated all the other sons equally and adopted a Spartan education (of course Cui Yunying did not know the word Spartan). Cui Yunying once witnessed her husband's sons marching and camping in the army like ordinary soldiers. Their riding skills, archery skills, and ability to use other weapons were all so proficient that they did not look like children of fourteen or fifteen years old. Therefore, there is a joke among Wang Wenzuo's guards: The mothers of the general's young masters must have been very hard at first, because the young masters must have carried bows and arrows when they were born, so they can shoot so accurately since they were born.

Cui Yunying certainly knew that what the guards said was just a joke. The martial arts of these children were obtained with countless sweat and blood. The reason why the husband did this was very simple: he had to select among his sons people who were good enough to succeed the great cause, so he let these children leave their mothers and receive rigorous training at a very young age. They joined the army at the age of fourteen or fifteen. The team is given tasks to each of them to hone their talents and abilities and find the person they need. Cui Yunying couldn't even accuse her husband of being too kind to these children, but when she saw these brave and resolute teenagers, she did feel afraid for her children.

Therefore, there is only one thing Cui Yunying can do. Try to take advantage of Wang Wenzuo's still life to fight for more things for herself and her children. Wang Wenzuo is already over forty this year. Assuming that he can live for another fifteen years, his children will have just grown up at that time, while his brothers are already around thirty, which is the age when a man is in his prime. If they fight equally, She didn't think her son could win.

"Lang Jun has returned home!"

The sound of the door ringing awakened Cui Yunying from her thoughts. She hurriedly led the maids to the second gate. She saw Wang Wenzuo crossing the sidewalk and walking towards her. She hurriedly gathered her clothes and bowed down: "I am concubine. I sincerely welcome you back home!"

"Between husband and wife, let's avoid all these red tapes!" Wang Wenzuo stepped forward to help his wife up: "How is Sheng'er today? How are you reading?"

"I have finished memorizing a section of Zuo Zhuan!" Cui Yunying said.

""Zuo Zhuan"? Not bad, not bad!" Wang Wenzuo said with a smile: "Isn't it a bit early to learn "Zuo Zhuan" at this age?"

"It's not early!" Cui Yunying said: "In our Cui family, it is just right for a boy to learn Zuo Zhuan at this age!"

"Oh!" Wang Wenzuo laughed: "I forgot about your Cui family's family education. Reading "Zuo Zhuan" makes people wise, which is good!"

Cui Yunying looked at Wang Wenzuo's satisfied expression, her heart moved, and she suddenly asked: "Sanlang, what did your children on the island, Sheng'er, learn at this age?"

"Those children on the island?" Wang Wenzuo was stunned when he heard this. He frowned: "Sheng'er is only five years old this year, right? At this age, they can only read and read "The Thousand Character Classic". In the Japanese Art of War There are many normal schools, but there are far fewer teachers in the literary field. How can I have a mother like Sheng'er who can speak "Zuo Zhuan"!"

"Really?" Cui Yunying said with a smile: "But I think those children are very good. Not only are they excellent in martial arts, they are also steady and polite in their words. They don't look like martial artists!" (End of Chapter)