A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 1265 Tuogu
The weather is getting hotter.

The emperor invited Wu Huaiyu, Ma Zhou, Fang Xuanling and other prime ministers to spend the summer in the Luoyang Palace.

The emperor used to go to Jiucheng Palace in Qizhou to escape the heat almost every summer, but considering that the court was preparing to establish Luoyang as the Eastern Capital, with two capitals coexisting, and the battle for Beisha City in Liaodong was about to begin,

The emperor went to Luoyang at this time not only to escape the summer heat but also to keep abreast of the war developments in Mobei and Liaodong.

In addition to the six prime ministers who were in the Tangquan Palace in Mount Li last time, the emperor also invited Duke of Wei Li Jing and Duke of Qi Qin Qiong to Luoyang this time. Even Duke of E Yuchi Jingde, who was semi-retired at home, was called up.

When setting off, Wu Huaiyu saw his father-in-law Yuwen Shiji, whom he hadn't seen for a long time. This veteran prime minister of the Wude and Zhenguan dynasties had been retired at home for almost ten years.

"Duke Yuwen doesn't look very well recently?"

The old man was so white-haired that he looked unrecognizable and his back was hunched.

"I'm old and should have died a long time ago. I'm satisfied to have lived to this age and see the world return to its former glory. Maybe one day I'll fall asleep and never wake up again."

Yuwen Shiji was quite indifferent. He was born in the prosperous Kaihuang period and would die in the prosperous Zhenguan period. He had experienced a lot in his life. He was born into a wealthy family. He was the son of Yuwen Shu, a powerful official of the Sui Dynasty. When he was young, he was granted the title of Duke of Xincheng County because of his father's merits. Then he married Princess Nanyang, was appointed as the son-in-law of the emperor, and moved to Shangnian Fengyu.

After the Jiangdu Incident, he went to Chang'an to join his old friend Li Yuan. Although his wife, Princess Nanyang, divorced him and his son died in the war, Li Yuan immediately arranged for him to marry Princess Shouguang, a member of the royal family. Because his sister was Li Yuan's favorite concubine, Concubine Yuwen Zhaoyi, he was soon appointed as the Minister of the Central Secretariat and was granted the title of Duke of Ying.

"Erlang, my body can't hold on for much longer. There is something we need to discuss. Let's arrange the marriage between your Wulang and my young lady as soon as possible."

Wulang Chengyou, the son of Wu Huaiyu and Fan Wuniang, was engaged to Yuwen Shiji and Yuwen Rulianhua, the daughter of Shouguang County Lady, in his early years, and had originally planned to get married this autumn.

Yuwen Shiji is now worried that he may not survive until that time, and hopes to let his daughter get married early, which is also for the sake of his children.

If he died suddenly before the marriage, not only would the wedding have to be canceled, but Yuwen would also have to stay at home to mourn her father for three years, which would delay the wedding.

When Wu Huaiyu and Yuwen Shiji got married, it was Qin Qiong and his wife who acted as matchmakers. Madam Qin Qiong and Madam Yuwen were both county princesses from the royal family of the Tang Dynasty.

Of the prime ministers during the Wude and Zhenguan periods, only Xiao Yu and Xiao Dapao are still in the court. Although Yuwen Shiji was once the Sima of the Tiance Palace, he is, after all, a trusted and old minister of Li Yuan.

"Then Lord Yuwen, what date do you think is suitable? We can move it up a little earlier."

Looking at his expression, Wu Huaiyu estimated that he might not survive this year, so he was willing to take care of this important matter first.

"May is the evil month, and July is the ghost month. Since we can't wait until autumn and winter, let's just wait until June." Yuwen Shiji said.

In fact, some places in the Tang Dynasty did not like getting married in June. They believed that June was half of the year, and getting married in June was like a half-marriage and would be less happy.

However, given Yuwen Shiji's situation at the time, he really couldn't wait until August or September.

"Lord Yuwen, on the way to Jiucheng Palace this time, we will ride in the same carriage. I will take your pulse carefully and prescribe a prescription for you to recuperate and nourish. Lord Yuwen has a body like this, and I think you will have no problem living to 99."

"Hahaha," Yuwen Shiji laughed, "Okay, I'll trouble Erlang."

He didn't refuse, but in fact he had been retired for almost ten years and had been in poor health for a long time. He had always consulted famous doctors and even asked Wu Huaiyu to see him before, but he was old and some old diseases were difficult to cure. He was actually very calm and had been able to face it calmly for a long time.

I have lived a life of extreme wealth and luxury, and I have enjoyed enough of it.

Of his three sons, one was killed by Dou Jiande, and the other two were of average talent, so he did not expect them to achieve anything great.

He has several daughters. One of them married Wu Huaiyu's fifth son, and another was chosen by the current emperor as the fiancée of the thirteenth prince, Prince Zhao.

Yuwen Shi and his sister Yuwen Zhaoyi were very favored by Li Yuan. Li Yuan once intended to make her the queen, but Yuwen herself refused. Her family background was relatively high among the concubines in Li Yuan's harem.

She also gave birth to two princes for Li Yuan, Prince of Han and Prince of Lu.

King Han Li Yuanjia married the daughter of Prime Minister Fang Xuanling.

As the emperor's eleventh brother, Li Yuanjia had long been granted a fiefdom in Longyou, at the source of the Tao River, east of the Xiqing Mountain, and established Xicangzhou. King Han Li Yuanjia was the hereditary governor of Xicangzhou.

This is the case with the nobles and relatives of the Tang Dynasty, whose relationships are complex and intertwined.

During the Zhenguan Dynasty, the system of enfeoffment of royal family members had undergone several changes, but it was basically finalized. The royal family members were enfeoffed in border areas and established fiefdoms, but there were many restrictions. Although they also had their own prince's palace, prince's kingdom, prince's personal affairs office, and prince's inner court, these sets of civil and military shogunate teams and guards,

However, there are strict restrictions on specifications and quantities.
The administrative, financial, tax, judicial and military affairs of the fiefdom were also handled by officials appointed by the imperial court, except that the princes could only receive one-third of the fiefdom taxes and enjoyed certain supervisory powers.

To put it bluntly, you are not really allowed to be enfeoffed and establish a kingdom, but are just allowed to be raised in the border areas, so as to avoid trouble in the capital and serve as a backup for the royal family.

After so many years of fighting, the final result was actually the result of the struggle between the centralization faction and the retro feudal faction. In the end, Wu Huaiyu, the conciliator, got the support of Li Shimin, which led to the enfeoffment of the emperor's brothers and princes to Liuqiu, Hainan Island, Annan, Yunnan, Longyou and Qinghai. Even Li Tai, Li You, Li Ke and others were demoted to the Hezhong area in the Western Regions.

If we talk about the true traditional enfeoffment, it is the Wu family's Luzon that has some of this meaning, but no one in the court took that overseas land seriously.

"What do you think of Li Ji's great victory in the northern border?" Yuwen Shiji asked.

Although this old man looks sickly now, he is both civil and military. He served as the governor of Liangzhou twice and also as the general of the Right Guard. He is not ignorant of military affairs.

"Lord Ying fought this battle beautifully and demonstrated the power and majesty of our Tang Dynasty." Wu Huaiyu said with a smile.

Yuwen Shiji said bluntly, "Li Ji's performance this time was indeed good, but compared with the achievements of Duke Weiguo and Erlang, it is still far behind.

If you were the one leading the northern expedition this time, the battle would not be so dangerous, you would be able to crush them with ease, and you would not even let the 200,000 Xueyantuo soldiers who went south go back. "

Those who are good at fighting do not have great achievements. This means that those who are truly good at using troops will not fight a battle too thrillingly. In other words, they will not let the war go beyond their control. Before the battle, they have already made a thorough plan, whether they can fight, how to fight, and even have several plans in mind.

Once the fight starts, just execute according to the plan.

On the contrary, those who make the battles thrilling and exciting lack strategic vision. The representative of this aspect is the Flying General Li Guang, who was very famous in the Western Han Dynasty, but often lost his way on the battlefield.
He is like Ke Zhen'e in Jin Yong's The Legend of the Condor Heroes. Every time he says the harshest words, he gets the harshest beating. Although Li Guang is famous, his record in battle is really not that good.

The Huns were not afraid of Li Guang. It was a 50-50 chance anyway, so what was there to be afraid of?

Wu Huaiyu conquered the Western Regions, destroyed countries and captured kings, established vast territories, and conquered many tribal kingdoms. However, in the eyes of the people in Chang'an, this war was very easy, as if the so-called Khans, Jijins, and kings of the Western Regions were all a bunch of losers.

But they didn't know that it was only because Wu Huaiyu's level was too high.

"If you, Erlang, led 12,000 elite Hedong cavalry and 30,000 Eastern Turkic light cavalry to fight against 80,000 extremely exhausted Xueyantuo people who came from afar, right at the foot of the Great Wall, could you defeat them right away?"

Wu Huaiyu did not refute.

He felt that Li Ji did win in the end, but it was a hard-fought victory. It could also be said that Li Simo was incompetent and underestimated the enemy. However, he was Li Ji, the commander after all, and he also bore responsibility.

But he also doesn't want to step on others.

In the end, we won and made great contributions to the country.

Yuwen Shiji said this not to belittle Li Ji, but to remind Wu Huaiyu that Li Ji won this battle with great difficulty, but now there is already a trend in Chang'an, and everyone is praising Li Ji's achievements. Obviously, someone is behind the scenes, and it is definitely not someone from Li Ji's family who is doing this.

Li Ji has always been cautious, and his family would not be so ostentatious. Yuwen Shi reminded him in time that this matter must have been instructed by the emperor, and the intention was to promote Li Ji as the new god of war.
When something new comes, the old will naturally be forgotten.

And he, Wu Huaiyu, is the old god of war.

Wu Huaiyu also knew it, but he didn't care, because he had already prepared to keep a low profile for a few years and then find an opportunity to go to Luzon.

He has already reached the red line area and can't climb any higher.

It would be nice to have a Li Ji suddenly appear and it would be nice to attract some attention to him.

"My sons don't have much ability, and I don't ask them to be successful. I just hope they live in peace. I hope Erlang can take care of them for me in the future because our two families are relatives. Also, please take care of my brothers' sons as well."

Yuwen Shiji's second son, Yuwen Chengsi, is currently the Shangnian Fengyu, a fifth-rank official in charge of the imperial vehicles. He is the head of the emperor's carriage team, and his rank is not low, but he has no real power. All the officials in charge are the children of meritorious officials and ministers.

He looked quite noble in his scarlet robe and silver fishnet, but compared with Wu Chengsi, the magistrate of Luoyang, they were of the same rank, authority and prospects, but they were far inferior.

Yuwen Chengsi will definitely inherit the title of Duke of Ying in the future, and he may only be a Palace Secretary or a Provincial Governor in this life. However, Wu Chengsi has the opportunity to move up to the position of Prime Minister, or at least become a Shangshu.

Sanlang of Yuwen Shiji's family was also granted the title of Duke of Xincheng County early on because of his father's merits. This was also a title inherited by the Yuwen family for several generations, but it was only an honorary title.

He has also helped raise his two brothers and two younger brothers’ children over the years.

"Don't worry, Lord Yuwen. Our two families are relatives, so we should naturally take care of each other."

The nobles and relatives of the nobility intermarried with each other, and even sought sons-in-law from the list after the imperial examination results were announced, all for the purpose of maintaining the class status of the family.

It takes at least several generations of hard work to build a wealthy family.

A family with a long history requires the efforts of more generations. If there is no successor, it may collapse quickly.

No matter whether these nobles were once from poor grassroots backgrounds or from declining wealthy families, once they have risen to the top, no one would want their family to fall again, and everyone would try their best to find a way.

Although social progress requires breaking down class stratification, the fact is that human nature dictates that no one will give the money they earn to outsiders.

By the same token, others have been running the business for generations, so why do you think you can make a comeback as a grassroots?

Even if a grassroots person really succeeds in a counterattack by taking advantage of favorable circumstances, he will still find a way to allow his descendants to continue to maintain the results of his hard work.

This is true for the emperor, princes and ministers, and even the landlords and wealthy businessmen are all the same.

In fact, the upper-class people in Chang'an City are thinking about this all day long.

"What are you thinking about? Why are you in a daze?"

After taking his relative Yuwen Shiji's pulse and diagnosing him, Wu Huaiyu prescribed a prescription, saying that he indeed didn't have much time left.

He came to his brother-in-law Ma Zhou,

But he was always absent-minded while chatting, and Ma Zhou rarely saw him in this state.

"I have been thinking about the matter between Balang and Qi Niang over and over again these days, and I always feel that it is not appropriate. Qi Niang is the daughter of Balang's aunt. This close relative marriage is very harmful."

"They are not from the same clan with the same surname. For thousands of years, marriages between aunts, uncles, and cousins ​​have always been a good thing to strengthen the relationship." Ma Zhou was also knowledgeable and well-informed. He also told Huaiyu about the endogamy system of Silla. "Silla implemented the bone rank system. Only the three surnames of Kim, Seok, and Park, who had been kings, were considered holy bones. Below them were true bones, as well as the fifth and fourth first ranks.
They are not allowed to marry each other among bone ranks. If a high-ranking person marries a low-ranking person, then their offspring can only be of low-ranking person. If the royal family of the Holy Bone marries someone below the Holy Bone, then they will lose their Holy Bone qualification and their royal status..."

Therefore, traditionally, only the three royal families could marry each other. But later, the Kim family gained long-term ruling power and became kings for generations. In order to consolidate the throne, the royal family of the Silla King Kim only married their own family members.

Uncles marry nieces, cousins, even aunts, and some even marry sisters.

The Jin family’s endogamy, also known as blood marriage, has been going on for many generations.

It is precisely because of this blood marriage system that the Kim family has always firmly grasped the throne of the king, and although the Seok and Park families are still called royal families, they have never been kings again.

"The blood marriage and endogamy of the Silla people are indeed against human ethics, but the marriage between our aunts, uncles and cousins ​​is completely different..."

Wu Huaiyu was silent.
Even people like Ma Zhou, who were knowledgeable and even held the position of prime minister, supported and upheld the tradition of intermarriage between aunts, uncles and cousins.

"Balang and Qi Niang's marriage is also considered inbreeding. From the perspective of doctors, direct inbreeding is very harmful and can easily lead to infertility and birth of deformed children."

Ma Zhou said, "But I heard that when close relatives marry, there are just as many deformed children as geniuses. Both are only very unlikely."

The ancients said that if a man and a woman have the same surname, their offspring will not be prosperous. Therefore, the rule that people with the same surname cannot marry has always been implemented. On the contrary, marriage between cousins ​​is encouraged.

Ma Zhou said this because there was actually a special situation in ancient times, that is, people in the same family would have similar genes, and when close relatives married, these genetic characteristics would likely be superimposed, making the good better and the bad worse.

When cousins ​​marry, their genes are less similar, so there will be fewer children with defects. Another important reality is that in ancient times, conditions were poor and many children were born, so those born with genetic defects often died young.

It is difficult to pass this defective gene to the next generation.

Therefore, in the eyes of the ancients, cousin marriage did not have such terrible consequences. On the contrary, they believed that many children born from cousin marriages were much smarter, and many were even geniuses.

Wu Huaiyu originally thought that since Ma Zhou was a scholar, he might not agree with this cousin marriage. If he objected, Wu Huaiyu would not force it.

After all, he has a huge secret. He is not a real member of the Wu family. He is a time traveler, not the real Wu Erlang, and he is not a real brother to Wu Yu'e.

Ma Zhou was very much in favor of his daughter and Wu Balang, thinking that the two had been childhood sweethearts and now had feelings for each other, so this marriage was a match made in heaven and would strengthen the relationship between the two families.

Wu Huaiyu said that it is more likely to give birth to a deformed baby, while Ma Zhou said that it is more likely to give birth to a genius.

Wu Huaiyu stressed that it was terrible to give birth to a deformed child. Ma Zhou said that even if a child with a congenital defect was born, it was fate. Who in the world didn't have a few children who died prematurely? This was the case for the emperor's family, let alone the common people.

This concept, which has been deeply rooted in people's minds since ancient times, is really difficult to change.

Wu Huaiyu used his titles as the disciple of the Hidden Immortal and the King of Medicine of the time, but he was unable to convince Ma Zhou. Instead, Ma Zhou became angry and he rarely asked Wu Huaiyu seriously, "Do you look down on me, Ma Zhou, because I come from a poor family?"

We can't continue this conversation.

In this case, there is no need to mention this matter again, otherwise my elder sister and brother-in-law will be very angry.

Originally, Wu Huaiyu wanted to use this incident to tell everyone the disadvantages of inbreeding, hoping to avoid it in the future, but now it seems that this traditional concept cannot be changed at all.

(End of this chapter)