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

Chapter 344 Bustling Chang'an City
No one knew yet that King An had arrived in Chang'an City.

Even the emperor is the same.

Chen Chengji and Chen Zhulou got off the carriage quietly. Except for a few guards around them, they asked everyone else to stay at Youfufeng, dozens of miles outside Chang'an City.

In this way, the father and son walked into Chang'an City under the cover of night.

The Chang'an City in the third year of Guanghe was still so unusually beautiful, carrying with it countless pasts and stories from the four hundred years of the Han Dynasty.

The Anguo Palace is still preserved by the Chen family.

There were people cleaning in the past, but not so many people.

When Chen Chengji received the letter from the emperor, he sent people to the mansion in advance to settle the father and son down, so that the father and son would not have problems with their lives after arriving in Chang'an.

The entrance to the mansion today is the same as it was during the time of Emperor Gao.

If it were other powerful people, they would definitely not allow vendors and people at the door, and they would even have to be cautious when passing by. But the Chen family was different. The Chen family did not care about these. If selling things at the gate of the Anguo Palace could protect the people from being bullied, the heads of the Chen family in all generations would be very willing to do so.

During the years when Chen retired, this place became a little quieter, because the people all knew that the saint who lived here had left.

Chen Chengji quietly walked into the mansion from the back door and stretched himself.

He turned around and looked at Chen Zhulou beside him and said, "Zhulou, this is probably the last quiet time for you and me as father and son."

Chen Chengji smiled and said, "Go ahead and have a good rest tonight. Starting tomorrow, I'm afraid you won't have such a relaxing time."

The news of their entry into the city tonight will be reached on the tables of all the major families and dignitaries tomorrow at the latest, and then both the disciples of the Chen family and the dignitaries of the family will come to visit the head of the Chen family.

Chen Chengji must attend the court meeting the day after tomorrow, after all, he is already the prime minister.

Although the prime minister of the new Han Dynasty was still nominally the head of the Three Dukes and the chief of all officials at this time, in fact his position had been sidelined. People only knew of the "general" but not the prime minister.

but.
It’s still the same sentence.

In official circles, identity and background are also important.

Chen Chengji is the general, so the general is the leader of all officials.

Chen Chengji is the Prime Minister
That's very simple, the prime minister is the head of all officials.

Even though Chen Chengji was only a minor official with a salary of 300 dan at that time, he was still the most powerful official in the court.

This is also the reason why Yuan, the Ten Eunuchs, and even the Emperor were shocked by Chen Chengji's return to the court.

It's time for changes to occur in the Han Dynasty's court.

Chen Zhulou looked back at everything in front of him, and then gazed at the magnificent Chang'an City again. Finally, he sighed and said, "I really hope that the Han Dynasty can survive for another 500 years."

The big man of today gave him a feeling of "a storm is about to come".

General's Mansion
He Jin sat there with a face full of flesh, with a look of surprise and confusion: "What? King An may have entered Chang'an City?"

He stood up suddenly, his hands shaking subconsciously, but he forced himself to suppress his inner panic.

He kept telling himself that he was already a great general, the leader of all officials, and the most powerful person in the world except for the emperor!

Even if King An came, it would be useless!

Would the soldiers under his command listen to King An and not to himself?
This is just ridiculous!

That shouldn't be the case, right?

He turned around and looked at the man sitting next to him, and asked in a low voice: "Sir, why do you think this person is here?"

The man closed his eyes and sighed.

"Everything will be known tomorrow."

Three hundred miles outside Youfufeng

Dong Zhuo sat on the horse, smacking his lips, his small eyes flickering with a hint of gloom.

"Wenhe, what do you think King An wants to do?"

Jia Xu sat beside him, fanning himself with a peaceful look on his face.

"General, didn't you receive the news? King An received a blood letter from His Majesty, saying that the court was controlled by the powerful and aristocratic families, and the people were living in misery. He asked His Royal Highness King An to come back and serve as prime minister to revive the Han Dynasty."

Dong Zhuo snorted and laughed twice: "Do you really believe this?"

Jia Xu raised his head and asked: "Why don't you believe it?"

"General, although the people of the Han Dynasty have not yet reached a point where they can barely move, people from all over the country have already begun to gather together."

He looked compassionate, raised his head and looked at the stars and said, "When I left my hometown, I heard about a sect called the 'Taiping Dao'. Its leader called himself 'General Tiangong' and 'Great Sage Teacher'. He claimed that he had inherited the 'Taiping Essential Technique' from the 'Nanhua Immortal' and had received guidance from the 'Taishang Daluotian Dedao Emperor'. Therefore, he established this sect to educate and save the world."

Jia Xu looked at Dong Zhuo with a half-smile: "This man's words sound nice, but in my opinion, this man just wants to change the world."

"This is how things are in Huang Tian."

Dong Zhuo frowned: "You mean, His Majesty King An is willing to come out of retirement because of the Taiping Dao and others' affairs?"

"The purpose is to save the big man?"

Jia Xu shook his head again: "No."

"What King An wants to save is this rotten world."

After he said this, he sat there and said nothing more.

Looking at Jia Xu like this, Dong Zhuo's eyes were filled with some fatigue.

"Is there any need to save this rotten world?"

There was a sneer on his face.

This version of Dong Zhuo is different from the original Dong Zhuo, but he also comes from Xiliang and gained fame by fighting his way through the mountains of corpses and seas of blood in Xiliang.

but.
He was a genuine lower-class man, and he understood that in the eyes of those "nobles" and "aristocratic families", a rough guy like him was just an ant that could be exploited.

Dong Zhuo said with emotion: "Yue Wu, if I had been a disciple of the Chen family instead of the Yuan family, would I not have to do these power-grabbing things now?"

Niu Fu rubbed his head happily and said, "General, I am a rough man and don't understand these things."

"I know that no matter what you do, I will listen to you."

There was a hint of shrewdness in his eyes: "But I heard that the head of the Chen family has always been pregnant. General, you haven't done anything too bad in these years. If you explain everything to His Royal Highness King An at this time, will there be no problem?"

Big belly?

Dong Zhuo was stunned for a moment before he realized what the silly cow meant. He held his forehead helplessly and said, "Is it really that simple?"

Jia Xu spoke up at this time: "In fact, sometimes we think too much, which makes things more troublesome. Sometimes it is often such fools who can understand the thoughts of the smartest and most sincere people." "The general will visit you when he enters Chang'an in two days. Why not give it a try then?"

Dong Zhuo showed some hesitation, but finally said, "Well, I'll give it a try."

He looked back at the Xiliang soldiers following behind him and said, "We must find a future for these peasants."

"Xiliang is too bitter."

Dong Zhuo closed his eyes, as if the sea of ​​blood and yellow sand of Xiliang was still before his eyes.

The three dukes and twenty-eight ministers in the court always fail to see the sufferings in the world, and there are many places like Xiliang.

but
Dong Zhuo smiled sarcastically.

He turned around and asked under the starry sky: "It is said that His Royal Highness King An is a saint, and it is said that all the heads of the Chen family are saints."

"Do you think he will be a true saint?"

Jia Xu and Niu Fu did not finish their words and both lowered their heads.

Niu Fu was thinking about what to eat tonight, while Jia Xu sighed sadly. He also wanted to know whether the current head of the Chen family was a saint.

If the current King An is a saint, why has the world become like this?

But if King An was not a saint, the world would not be like this today.

Countless thoughts swirled in Jia Xu's mind.

In the end, he just let out a long sigh and looked towards the distant Chang'an City in the distance.

Chang'an, ah, Chang'an.

That is the center of the Han Dynasty.

And they were going to get there eventually.

early morning
Chen Zhulou was lying on the bed, listening to the chirping of birds outside. The maid in the room heard the sound and hurried over to help Chen Zhulou get dressed.

Powerful and wealthy families are always like this, and even the Chen family cannot avoid it.

While he was being dressed by the people around him, he whispered, "Where's my father?"

The maid replied in a low voice:

"Sir, the master is meeting someone in the front hall right now, and he has told this servant that if you wake up, he will let you go over as well."

She thought for a moment and added, "Sir, you said he is not an outsider, so we have to meet him anyway. After the meeting, if you are impatient, you can go out and take a walk in Chang'an."

The maid's face was filled with longing for Chang'an City. She said expectantly, "Master said Chang'an has always been prosperous. It would be great if you could see more of it."

Chen Zhulou nodded indifferently.

Is Chang'an city prosperous?
It's just about the same as Guandu.

At this time, Chen Chengji was sitting in the front yard, meeting several guests. These guests were all disciples of the Chen family and also held positions of two thousand stones in the court, which made them considered as frontier officials.

Several of them held important positions such as the Grain and Taxation Office, while others held relatively remote positions among the Thirty-Six Ministers, but were still high-ranking officials.

Chen Zhulou just took a look from a distance and sighed in his heart.

Among those disciples who came to visit him, some he disliked and some he liked, but he had to meet them all because he was the next King of An and the next head of the Chen family.

There was no way he could escape from such personal connections.

He couldn't even treat those he didn't like differently, or even give them a cold shoulder.

Because they are all working for Chen.

Although some of them liked to accept bribes and became corrupt officials, half of the money they embezzled was given to Chen's disciples who wanted to do things.

It is precisely because of this that the Han people today have not reached the worst step.

Then, Chen Zhulou walked forward and greeted everyone one by one, calling them "uncles". They all returned the greetings very politely, and one or two of them even had a hint of red in their eyes.

There are rumors outside that Master Zhulou does not like people like them who are "corrupt officials" and "exploit the people". And because Master Zhulou is the next generation successor to the Chen family, they are not very popular among the Chen family's disciples.

It seems that once Master Zhulou comes to power, these people will be completely eradicated.

Although they had been prepared for this, they still felt sad when such a thing really happened.

And now Chen Zhulou's actions have broken this rumor, even though they actually know in their hearts that Chen Zhulou still doesn't like them.

Chen Zhulou caught a glimpse of the "relaxation" in the eyes of these people, and his heart was complicated and chaotic. At this moment, he was no longer like the one who blamed his father in the car a few days ago.

He seemed to understand what "compromise" meant.

Patience and compromise are the second hardest things to do in the world, and the first hardest thing to do is to keep your own heart while compromising and being patient.

When the heart remains sharp, no other difficulties can knock it down.

The air in Chang'an City is much worse than that in Guandu City. This was Chen Zhulou's first reaction when he walked on the street.

From time to time, there are sons of powerful and wealthy people riding horses, which is much worse than Guandu City.

No so-called playboy dared to ride a horse in Guandu City, because the children of the most powerful family in the city, the Chen family, were not allowed to do such a thing, so the order in Guandu City was in good order.

Chen Zhulou frowned, but there were many vendors around.

There were also many disciples of great Confucian scholars hurrying along the road. Chen Zhulou just glanced at them from a distance. It seemed that they were heading to the residence of the great Confucian scholar and Shangshu Lu Zhi. As for Lu Zhi, Chen Zhulou recalled his father's introduction.

It is said that he was a great scholar with considerable talent, but his style of doing things was "exactly the same as those of his stupid predecessors who deserved to be burned to death."

These are Chen Chengji’s original words.

Ever since Emperor Guangwu Zhaowu quelled the rebellion of Wang Mang, Chen's "political science" has become the dominant school of thought. But in the last years of Emperor Guangwu's reign, Chen Chong, an ancestor of the Chen family, felt that "a single dominant school of thought is not a good thing", so he submitted a memorial to Emperor Guangwu, requesting that other schools of thought be revived.

Among them, Confucianism, Mohism and Huang-Lao school of thought had the best timing, location and people, and were most successfully revived, almost reaching the status of "prominent schools" at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

After that, whichever of the three schools received the emperor's support would be able to temporarily surpass the other two and be ranked below political science.

It's one superpower and many strong ones.

Confucianism is the only school of thought that is loved today, and that is why Confucianism is flourishing.

Just as he was thinking, there was suddenly a loud and noisy sound in the distance. Chen Zhulou wanted to watch the fun, so he hurried forward.

He stood on tiptoe to look at it and asked the man next to him: "Brother, what happened?"

(End of this chapter)