Thousand-year-old family: its rise began with Shang Yang’s reforms

Chapter 330 Lou·Dou E·Lan
The fourth year of Longfeng arrived quietly, and the officials of the Han Dynasty had no other ideas.

After all, what could they think?

The emperor suppressed the four seas and exerted his power over the four barbarians. All the people in the world submitted to the Han Dynasty, and then offered the best things of their own country to please the Han Dynasty.

It's about the affairs in the court.
Although the current emperor likes to throw everything to them, not telling them the needs, letting them guess and speculate, and then giving them solutions, and occasionally rejecting the plans, at least he is not like the emperor emeritus who likes to chop off people at every turn.

Even if people today dislike you, they will still give you a little dignity and let you retire and return home.

It's better to retire and return home than to lose your head, right?
What's more, there is one biggest advantage today! That is, the emperor today will not let his subjects take the blame!

This was enough for the ministers in the court to "tolerate" the emperor's willfulness.

Chen Duobing actually felt a little speechless about these things in the court. It was indeed because the emperor did not set a good example. The oppression back then was too harsh, so they felt that the current emperor was okay.
But Chen Duobing didn't say anything about it. After all,
He is not too tired.

Who is Chen Duobing? The current emperor is his brother-in-law, the current queen is his sister, the current crown prince is his nephew, the current prime minister is his father, and the current Grand Marshal, Military Marshal, and Military Commandant are all his relatives.

He, Chen Duobing, is the most important relative of the Longfeng Dynasty, okay?

Who dares to put the blame on him?

At this time, Chen Duobing was still working as a Honglu Temple Minister. Every day he would just report for work, then eat and drink in the yamen, waiting to get off work.

He is different from his father, grandfather, and even several previous eldest sons. His greatest wish is to lie in a high enough position and then live out his retirement.

Moreover, even this "high enough" position was not what he wanted, but what "Chen" should have.

Otherwise, not to mention the Chen family, even the emperor would be a little panicked.

As for Chen Duobing's sickly character, Chen Wu Shi did not say anything. After all, for the Chen family, there had been powerful ministers in the world since the establishment of the Han Dynasty and the reign of Emperor Gao. There were powerful ministers of the Chen family in five dynasties, including Emperor Xiaoren, Emperor Xiaowen, Emperor Xiaojing, and Emperor Xiaowu.

Chen's power is a bit too great.
How could Chen not understand the principle that everything will decline after reaching its peak?

So on the surface, Chen Wu Shi seemed to disagree with Chen Duobing's character and felt a little disappointed with him, but in fact, Chen Wu Shi was "very pleased".

People all have filters when it comes to their own sons.

He thought that Chen Duobing had seen through Chen's current situation, so he deliberately acted idle and had no ambitions, so as not to arouse the emperor's suspicion.

Chen Wu Shi sighed in secret with his wife many times, feeling impressed by his son's understanding.

A wise child is better than his mother.

Chen Duobing's mother knew best what Chen Duobing was like, so every time her husband told her how difficult her son's life was, Chen's mother always smiled appropriately yet awkwardly.

She always wanted to take her husband's brain apart to see why such a smart head would become stupid when it came to her son's affairs.
Inside Honglu Temple
After Chen Duobing finished his roll call, he yawned casually.

"Is there anything you need me to deal with today? If not, please don't bother me."

The subordinates naturally knew Chen Duobing's character, and they all nodded immediately.

After lighting the incense, Chen Duobing began to "close his eyes and rest his mind."

Suddenly, after an unknown amount of time, there was a burst of hurried footsteps outside, and then the Junior Secretary of the Honglu Temple suddenly pushed the door open and walked in, with an angry, frightened, and anxious look on his face: "Secretary Chen! Secretary Chen!"

"Not good! Not good!"

"Something happened!"

Chen Duobing suddenly woke up from his sleep with a bewildered look on his face. He raised his head and looked at Fang Yingkan, who was in shock and anger. "What's wrong? What's wrong?"

"Your Majesty is here for inspection?"

Fang Yingkan was not angry because of Chen Duobing's performance. He was also one of the people in "Chen Wushi's guess". Therefore, he felt very sympathetic towards Chen Duobing, who had great talent but could not display it and could only pretend to get by.

"Chen Shaoqing, Marquis Bowang is back!"

Chen Duobing frowned: "Isn't it a good thing that Marquis Bowang is back?"

Fang Yingkan's voice became angry: "Marquis Bowang has returned, but he didn't bring much back! And he has injuries all over his body!"

Are you injured???

Chen Duobing stood up instantly. Although he had never seen the deceased ancestor Chen Tuo, he always admired Chen Tuo's free and easy character, so he was very concerned about the Silk Road.

"Injured? No one in the Han Dynasty dares to touch Marquis Bowang, so what about the countries in the Western Regions?"

"Which small country is it?"

"How dare you hurt the envoy of the Han Dynasty!"

He paced back and forth, as if he didn't notice the thought in Fang Yingkan's eyes. He just thought and said, "Kucha, Yanqi, and Ruoqiang would not be so disrespectful to our envoys. After all, they are relatively large countries and know how powerful our Han Dynasty is."

"Small countries like Cheshi Qianguo, Cheshi Houguo, and Cheshi Weiduguo dare not offend the might of the Han Dynasty."

He looked at Fang Yingkan and said, "So, which country do you think it will be?"

Fang Yingkan had a strange look on his face. Looking at Chen Duobing, who had directly eliminated the three countries of Kucha, Yanqi and Ruoqiang, which were relatively far away from the Han Dynasty and difficult to attack, and also directly eliminated the Sanche Kingdom, which had no oil and water, his expression showed even more admiration.

His previous guess turned out to be true!
Chen Duobing is indeed a man of great talent. He realized that this was a play performed by Marquis Bowang and His Majesty, and the purpose was to warn the countries in the Western Regions.

His expression suddenly dropped, and his voice was filled with confusion: "Yes, Lord Temple, I am also confused, who could it be?"

Although the emperor said that he wanted to strike a blow against the countries in the Western Regions, he did not tell them who he wanted to strike.

So they could only speculate that he had come here to discuss things with Chen Duobing. After all, he was the one who handled many matters in the Honglu Temple.

He had been somewhat suspicious of Chen Duobing. Was he over-guessing this guy? Was he really a playboy?
But what happened today changed his mind again.

What does it mean to be wise but foolish? What does it mean to keep a low profile?
This is what it means to be wise but appear foolish, this is what it means to keep a low profile!

Chen Duobing frowned and continued to think. After a moment, he finally sighed: "It must be Loulan!"

Loulan?

Fang Yingkan raised his head, his expression even more confused: "Why is it Loulan?"

He finally managed to dig out the name of Loulan from his mind, and he felt even more confused.

Why is Loulan Loulan?

Chen Duobing sighed and explained to Fang Yingkan, "The country of Loulan has a bad geographical location. It is located outside the Great Yuezhi and the Western Regions. It is the key throat of the Han Dynasty leading to the Western Regions."

"They don't have many resources, only some gold and silver mines. In the past, they could rely on spices and war horses to trade with the Han Dynasty, but since the Han Dynasty conquered the Xiongnu, their war horses have become worthless!"

"So they couldn't survive, so they attacked the Han envoys and wanted to threaten the Han!"

"Loulan is not that big. They must not know the might of our Han Dynasty!" "So Loulan is the most likely country!"

Fang Yingkan broke out in a cold sweat as he listened to Chen Duobing's words.

The throat is strategic, there are gold and silver mines, there are warhorse training methods and bases, and the country is not too big, so the Han Dynasty does not need to spend too much effort
Fang Yingkan carefully selected the thirty-six countries in the Western Regions and finally found that no country was more suitable than Loulan to be the "chicken" of the Han Dynasty.
Chen Duobing is indeed a talented person!
"That's it, that's it."

"The Temple Minister is indeed a man of great talent and vision!"

Chen Duobing waved his hand modestly: "Hahahaha, what you said is true. I am not a man of great talent and strategy. I am just a person who eats and waits for death. At most, I have read a few more books."

Fang Yingkan automatically understood it as: "Don't tell others about my cleverness, I will continue to pretend."

He nodded quickly: "It will definitely not ruin Si Qing's business!"

Weiyang Palace
Liu Ju looked at the memorial in his hand and his expression became even weirder.

After handing the memorial to Liu Ju, he beckoned the messenger in embroidered robes and asked, "Whose idea was it in this memorial?"

"Is it from the Temple Minister or the Junior Minister?"

The embroidered robe envoy did not dare to lie and told the whole story of what had happened sincerely.

Liu Ju, who knew his brother-in-law very well, turned around, looked at Liu Jin and said, "My prince, do you think your uncle is really a wise man who is hiding his talents and biding his time, unwilling to be a powerful official, and is asking Chen to retire at the right time, or is he just a blind servant who caught a dead mouse?"

Liu Jin coughed lightly: "Father, how can you say that my uncle is a blind raccoon slave?"

He said tactfully: "I think that my uncle is a naive and brilliant person with a lazy temperament and a serious heart. He should not be the kind of person who is cunning."

Liu Ju rolled his eyes after listening to his son's words.

"What do you mean by innocent and brilliant, or having a dignified character? Why don't you just say that he doesn't have the brains to do such a thing?"

He held his forehead and sighed: "However, this kid actually guessed it right."

"Humph."

Liu Jin chuckled: "Anyway, the emperor also considered Loulan, and after what my uncle said, I think Xiaowan is more suitable for Loulan. After all, Loulan and Xiaowan are next to each other, isn't this killing the chicken to scare the monkeys?"

Liu Ju smacked his lips. In fact, he initially considered Xiaowan and Loulan, but had not yet decided which one.

After hearing what the Crown Prince and Chen Duobing said, he actually felt that Loulan was better, so he wrote a comment directly on the memorial, then shook his head and sighed: "Hey, actually I really want your uncle to be smart."

"I am not afraid that the Chen family will become powerful officials. After all, you have the blood of the Chen family in your body. Your future descendants and the future emperor of the Han Dynasty will all have the blood of the Chen family."

"I am familiar with the Chen family. They will not be traitors."

Liu Jin just smiled and said, "But it is precisely because of the courage to retreat at the peak of one's career that the Chen family has been able to pass on to this day, isn't it?"

"Whether my uncle is truly wise but appears foolish, or truly innocent and brilliant, as long as he can stay like this, then we don't need to care."

"We are the Liu family after all, so we can't interfere too much with the Chen family's decisions."

Liu Ju could only nod at Liu Jin and say, "You, everyone says that girls are outgoing, and you, a man, are no less outgoing. Why are you so partial to your uncle's family?"

Liu Jin just smiled and didn't answer.

"In the summer of the fourth year of Longfeng, Marquis Bowang returned to Chang'an from the Western Regions. His journey was miserable, and all his attendants and guards were injured. When Marquis Bowang arrived in Chang'an, he was exhausted and fainted. The queen was very sad and told the emperor: Loulan attacked him on the way, and the army was defenseless, so there were heavy casualties."

"When the emperor heard this, he was furious and said: How dare you, a small country, bully me! Even though Loulan is far away, I will definitely punish it!"

"At that time, the people were outraged and furious."

"The Emperor's decree: Order the Duke of Lin'an, the general, and the military commander Chen Qulu as the commander-in-chief, and the Marquis of Guanjun, the general, and the military commander Huo Qubing as the commander-in-chief. Divide the troops into two groups and lead an army of 300,000!"

"In Loulan, attack the country and destroy the temple!"

"To show the majesty of the Han people!"

"Duke Lin'an and Marquis Guanjun drank wine in front of the battle line and said: We will not return until Loulan is conquered!" - "Book of Han: Annals of Emperor Xiaocheng"

Loulan at this time

The King of Loulan was very confused. He looked at his ministers and asked, "Did anyone take action?"

The courtiers in the audience were even more confused than him: "We don't have it?"

Everyone was looking around the country in horror, and almost everything was checked, but they still could not find anyone who had attacked the Han envoy.

Only Prince Loulan sighed silently in his heart.

He took a step forward and said, "Father, have you forgotten that you once insulted the Han people in the palace last year? And - the officials in the court seemed to want to cooperate with the Great Yuezhi and prohibit the sale of war horses to the Han people."

He looked at the ministers in the court with a wry smile on his face: "No one attacked the Han people. The Han people are using this as an excuse to teach us a lesson."

Prince Loulan hadn't said anything more.

He looked in the direction of Dayuezhi and Dayuan.

This is still killing the chicken to scare the monkey.

Their Loulan is the chicken.

The war did not last long. It only took fifteen days from the time the Han army arrived in Loulan to the time when Loulan surrendered as a whole and the King of Loulan pledged his loyalty to the Han emperor and expressed his willingness to lower himself to a vassal state of the Han.

In just fifteen days, a medium-sized country that was not too small in the Western Regions disappeared, vanishing in the yellow sand.

All the countries in the Western Regions were shocked.

Among the thirty-six countries, the nine larger ones fell to their knees in an instant, and they still had the qualifications to fall to their knees.

They expressed their willingness to accept the jurisdiction of the Western Regions Protectorate, but asked to retain their country and throne.

Among the thirty-six countries, the remaining twenty-seven smaller countries, oh, it should be twenty-six, after all, Loulan is gone.

These twenty-six countries all expressed their willingness to surrender their thrones and become vassal states of the Han Dynasty.

Accept the jurisdiction of the Western Regions Protectorate and accept the supervision of the government by the "Heavenly Officials" sent by the Han Dynasty.
After the Western Han Dynasty, there was no more war in the Western Region.

"Regarding the casualties of Marquis Bowang and his entourage, we still need to investigate."

"In the obvious historical materials, we can find some scattered records that among the so-called heavy casualties of Marquis Bowang, the three cows that were used as food for the journey died - the cows were sent by the small countries in the Western Regions; and more than a dozen horses were injured - the horses were also sent by the countries in the Western Regions." - "Master Xu Reading the Book of Han"

(End of this chapter)