Daming: Old Zhu, we agreed not to rush!

A wealthy family?

Zhu Biao suddenly felt a little confused. Why was it said that he was from a wealthy family again?

A dignified emperor, how can he still be afraid of his family members?

Li Shimin was not a weak emperor, he was Tang Taizong!

The most powerful emperor in the entire Tang Dynasty, or in other words, among all the emperors in the past, he was one of the most powerful emperors.

For an emperor of this level, Zhu Biao really couldn't put him into the situation Su Jing mentioned.

"Master Su, don't you understand very well that as an emperor, you shouldn't be afraid of some aristocratic families, right?"

Zhu Biao asked his doubts directly, and his communication with Su Jing was so direct.

Su Jing didn't feel too surprised. Zhu Biao was only at this age after all. Although he was taught by many famous teachers, there were always things he had not learned.

Moreover, most of the teachers in the aristocratic family would not be able to teach Zhu Biao.

"Prince, what do you think a wealthy family is?"

Su Jing is not in a hurry, there is still a long time, so she can speak slowly.

Zhu Biao thought for a while and said: "Students think that the so-called aristocratic families are huge families with numerous talented people, famous people, fame and financial resources. These are the aristocratic families."

Su Jing nodded slightly: "It's not wrong, but the aristocratic family is more powerful than what you said. Before the Tang Dynasty, there was a saying that a family with a thousand years and a country with a hundred years."

"What do you mean? Naturally, a country's inheritance can only last for a few hundred years, but this family can inherit it for thousands of years. Only such a family is qualified to be called a powerful family."

"For example, let's take the Yang family of Hongnong. Their ancestor Yang Xi was originally a lieutenant in charge of the cavalry department of Liu Bang, the emperor of the Han Dynasty. He was also a military attache who managed the palace's cavalry department. However, in the battle to kill Xiang Yu, , Yang Xi snatched a part of Xiang Yu's body, and was therefore named Chiquanhou. This gave rise to the Hongnong Yang family that would be passed down for thousands of years."

"Even though Yang Xi was made Marquis of Chiquan, he still had little prestige and seemed to be ignored by everyone, but his great-grandson Yang Chang was the prime minister in the era of Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty. Yang Xi's eighth grandson Yang Zhen was even known as He was known as "Kuanxi Confucius" and was promoted to Taiwei. Yang Zhen's son Yang Bing, his grandson Yang Ci, and great-grandson Yang Biao (father of Yang Xiu) all served as Taiwei. Later generations were called "Four Generations and Three Dukes", that is, officials from generation to generation. In a high position.”

"Even after the Five Husties disrupted China, the Yang family still stood strong. Even in the Northern Zhou Dynasty, there was Yang Jian, the founding emperor of the Sui Dynasty. Yes, the emperor of the Sui Dynasty was a descendant of the Hongnong Yang family."

"And Li Yuan, the founding emperor of the Tang Dynasty, was actually a member of the Li family in Longxi before he became emperor. The succession of emperors in the Sui and Tang Dynasties was, to say the least exaggerated, the result of balanced negotiations between several powerful families."

"With this current situation, would Li Shimin, as the emperor, be wary of other aristocratic families? The five surnames of the Tang Dynasty are Qiwang, the Zhaojun Li family, the Qinghe Cui family, the Boling Cui family, and the Fanyang Lu family. , the Zheng family in Xingyang, and the Wang family in Taiyuan were all famous families at that time, and they had a pivotal position in the entire Tang Dynasty court."

With Su Jing's popular science, Zhu Biao finally understood.

It turns out that in the Tang Dynasty, family status was such a serious matter.

"But Master Su, didn't the Sui Dynasty create the imperial examination system? Since there is an imperial examination system for officials, then there won't be only children of noble families in this dynasty, right?"

Zhu Biao had doubts again.

Su Jing smiled and said: "That's a good question. This question actually has a lot to say. It took a while for the imperial examination system to truly play its role, that is, to be able to get an official position regardless of one's origin. In other words, It’s because of one thing.”

"Before the emergence of the imperial examination system, how could ordinary people become officials? The common method was to promote filial piety and integrity. For example, Cao Cao in the late Eastern Han Dynasty promoted filial piety and integrity to become officials."

"If we only focus on promoting filial piety and honesty, it is actually a more reasonable plan. After all, people with good conduct are more likely to be good officials when they become officials."

"But what is the fact? If you are not a child of a well-known family, no one will recommend you at all, because the officials in the court are all people from well-known families. They will not recommend their own relatives and descendants, but they can recommend each other. In this way, the children of aristocratic families continued to serve as officials in the court, using their power to support the family and make the family stronger. Under such circumstances, the aristocratic family became more powerful and its impression continued to expand."

"In the Tang Dynasty, even marriage granted by the emperor was not as good as marrying into a big family, and a talented man like Wang Wei could only enter the court as an official by becoming a wife. It can be seen that at that time Even though there are imperial examinations, the matter of becoming an official is still firmly in the hands of the powerful families."

"Although Wei Zheng is a son of a noble family, compared with those big aristocratic families, he only belongs to a poor family. He can only support the family to a limited extent, or in other words, it will not allow the Wei family to grow rapidly. Li Shimin is very relieved that he is the prime minister. "

Su Jing said she was a little thirsty, so she picked up the kettle on the side and started drinking.

Zhu Biao remained silent, carefully recalling what Su Jing had just said.

The wealthy family seems to be a cancer for the entire dynasty.

"Master Su, what you just said was before the Tang Dynasty, right?"

Zhu Biao suddenly asked Su Jing: "Then why didn't this problem disappear after the Tang Dynasty?"

"As students know, there don't seem to be that many wealthy families in the Ming Dynasty now. No, they should be wealthy families that are more than a thousand years old. There are none at all!"

Zhu Biao listened really seriously and heard different things from Su Jing's words.

Su Jing plugged the kettle and said, "Well, that's what I said. This is an event that really put the imperial examination system on the right track in history."

"I wonder if the prince has ever heard of a poem called "Fu Di Hou Fu Ju"."

"The Empress Fu Ju"?

Zhu Biao was stunned for a moment, and then his mind began to think about the content of this poem.

However, after thinking for a while, Zhu Biao still couldn't find the relevant content of this poem.

"Students don't know."

Zhu Biao shook his head.

Su Jing was not surprised at all. Although this poem was quite famous in the previous life, it was not well known in the Ming Dynasty.

Su Jing said: "Then I will tell you what I want to say. When autumn comes on September 8th, I will bloom and kill hundreds of flowers. The incense array will penetrate Chang'an, and the whole city will be filled with golden armor."

After Su Jing finished reading, Zhu Biao immediately said: "What a poem, full of killing intent! Who is this poet? He has such momentum, he is quite powerful!"

Su Jing said lightly: "This poet's name is Huang Chao. He was originally a scholar during the reign of Emperor Xizong of the Tang Dynasty and Li Xuan. He was born in a salt merchant family. He was from a wealthy family. He showed good poetic talent since he was a child. Then he went to take the imperial examination. However, they failed one after another. Then there was a severe drought in Guandong, and the Tang Dynasty government increased the tax burden, which directly led to Wang Xianzhi's uprising. Huang Chao was completely disappointed with the court, and then he also raised a rebel army to resist the rule of the Tang Dynasty. This incident became known as the Huangchao Uprising."

"At the peak of the Huang Chao Uprising, Huang Chao led 300,000 peasant rebels into Chang'an City. Then Huang Chao did something that seemed very bloody and cruel at the time, but it had an extremely profound impact on future generations. Even It can be said that countless ordinary people's lives have turned around because of Huang Chao."

"Does the prince know what Huang Chao did after entering Chang'an?"

Zhu Biao shook his head and said, "Students don't know."

Su Jing said with a smile: "He led his rebel army and captured and killed those people from aristocratic families. At that time, there were many nobles gathered in Chang'an City, including many from thousand-year-old families, and they were all core figures in the thousand-year-old families. But Huang Chao slaughtered all these wealthy families, even the members of the Li Tang royal family, he showed no mercy at all and wiped these wealthy families out of the world with complete physical destruction."

"After the Huangchao uprising and the massacre of Chang'an, the poet Wei Zhuang entered the city and saw many scenes, and wrote a poem called "The Song of a Diligent Woman". In the poem, he wrote, "The prosperity of the past has been buried, and the eyes are desolate for no reason. The inner treasury was burnt to ashes, and the bones of the ministers were trampled in the streets.'" ˆ ˆ ˆ "It can be said that it was precisely because of the physical destruction of the noble families by the Huang Chao Uprising that the nobility that had been passed down for thousands of years disappeared directly from the Chinese territory. After that, the imperial examinations , ordinary people will have normal promotion channels, and the court will no longer be controlled by those powerful families."

"Dynasties after the Tang Dynasty no longer need to worry about the family status."

After Su Jing finished speaking, Zhu Biao was completely shocked.

Events in history can actually have such a far-reaching impact.

The wealthy family, if you listen carefully, is simply a cancer, and this cancer is so deep-rooted that it is almost impossible to remove it.

And this Huangchao, a peasant uprising, actually completely eliminated this cancer.

Zhu Biao found that he had never heard his teacher mention such an important matter before.

But think about it carefully, how could other people see Master Su so profoundly in this matter?

Perhaps in the eyes of others, this is just an ordinary peasant uprising.

But in fact, this was an event that had an extremely far-reaching impact on future generations.

Zhu Biao looked at Su Jing, his eyes full of reverence: "Master Su, the student has been taught."

Su Jing said calmly: "Prince, in history, many things may seem simple, but they have deep meanings behind them. As the prince, if you want to manage the Ming Dynasty in the future, there are some things that you need to look at deeply."

"Students should remember Master Su's teachings."

Zhu Biao saluted Su Jing respectfully.

Su Jing said: "Okay, I'm a little tired of talking now. Let's take a break and continue later."

Even though it looked like it was Su Jing taking the exam for Zhu Biao, it was actually Su Jing who had been talking.

Such high-intensity content output is really tiring.

"Yes, Master Su can just rest. The students will not disturb Master Su."

Zhu Biao said immediately.

Su Jing didn't think too much, just closed her eyes and squinted. She woke up early, and she was really sleepy now.

I don’t know how long it took before Su Jing woke up.

As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw Zhu Biao holding a "Historical Records" in his hand and looking at it seriously.

"Prince, the car is bumpy. If you read a book for a long time, it will hurt your eyes."

Su Jing reminded.

Eyes are very important organs. Although Su Jing can make glasses, he does not want Zhu Biao to wear glasses at a young age.

Zhu Biao immediately put the book away. He had always trusted Su Jing's words unconditionally.

"Master Su, do you want some water?"

Zhu Biao picked up the kettle and asked.

Su Jing shook her head: "No, let's continue the topic just now. The prince mentioned the reasons for the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty before, but he only talked about one political aspect. There should be more later."

If Zhu Biao hadn't brought up the relationship between Wei Zheng and Li Shimin, Su Jing wouldn't have made a lot of it.

However, Su Jing still felt it was necessary to talk about Huang Chao's uprising.

The impact of this incident was not only in the Ming Dynasty, but even in Su Jing's previous life, the impact remained unabated.

If it weren't for the Huang Chao Uprising, it is very likely that China today would be in the same situation as its next door neighbor.

"Yes, Master Su."

Zhu Biao nodded and continued immediately: "The second reason for the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty was the economy. The Tang Dynasty restored production and transportation that had been damaged during the war, reclaimed wasteland, built water conservancy projects, built canals, and developed cities across the country. wait."

"These measures are infrastructure projects that may not directly produce much economic benefit, but they are a guarantee of people's livelihood. At the same time, in terms of commerce, the Tang Dynasty had a lot of foreign trade, sending envoys or merchants to the Western Regions, Tianzhu, and exchanges and cooperation with Japan and other regions.”

"Unlike the Ming Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty did not have such strict control over merchants. The descendants of merchants could obtain honors, and merchant families were gradually formed, which greatly promoted the development of commerce."

After all, he has been studying business with Su Jing. Zhu Biao has quite good economic insights.

Su Jing nodded with satisfaction and said: "Not bad, not bad. In terms of economics, basically nothing was left out. It seems that the prince did not just read the book, but also made his own summary. This is good."

This compliment was extremely sincere from Su Jing, and Zhu Biao's summary was definitely the result of hard work.

"Master Su praised me so much that the students just implemented Master Su's teachings."

Zhu Biao said extremely humbly.

What he said was also sincere. The method of reading, studying and organizing and summarizing that Su Jing taught him was really useful.

Learning itself is also a matter of skill.

"Okay, let's stop complimenting each other."

Su Jing smiled: "Go on, there's more."

Zhu Biao said seriously: "After the economy, there is the military. In the early Tang Dynasty, with the foundation laid by Li Shimin, the army was extremely powerful, and surrounding countries did not dare to intrude. Of course, there were also things like marriage."

"But in general, it was the strong military strength that ensured the normal and stable development of the Tang Dynasty, and this was the reason why the Tang Dynasty prospered."

Politics, economics, military.

Zhu Biao's summary of the Tang Dynasty really surprised Su Jing.

Su Jing smiled and said: "Prince, it's really like not seeing you for one day, it's like three autumns!" (End of this chapter)