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

Chapter 385: Death of Zhang Jue (Part )

In the ninth year of Tiantai, he came to Beijing

Zhang Jue was sitting in the study, with his eldest son "Zhang Cheng" sitting in front of him.

Zhang Cheng looked humble as he was reporting to his father about the books he had been studying in recent days and his research on some political events.

What is recorded in "Taiping Yaoshu" is never just the so-called "Taoism".

It also contains Zhuangzi's political philosophy and the art of war.

Zhang Jue knew very well that there was no emperor who could unify the world in troubled times without knowing how to use military force.

Therefore, he began to let his children learn military tactics and politics from a very young age. His purpose was that if he died one day, his children could continue to support this huge empire with what he left behind.

The eunuch's steps seemed slow but in fact he came to the hall very quickly. He whispered, "Your Majesty, General Di Gong wants to see you."

After Zhang Jiao established Dayu, he temporarily did not confer titles of kingship on them, saying "the country has not yet been unified, so how can it be divided?" Therefore, Zhang Liang and Zhang Bao still have the titles they were given after the uprising.

He nodded slightly: "Let him in."

Then he looked at Zhang Cheng beside him and said, "You go back first. Complete the homework I gave you today seriously after you go back."

Zhang Cheng bowed slightly, as if he was not affected at all by the wind and rain outside.

"I will definitely live up to your trust."

Outside the "Tianshi Hall", Zhang Cheng who was going out and Zhang Bao who was coming in passed each other. They looked at each other and saw a flash of dangerous light in each other's eyes.

Ever since Zhang Jue's health gradually deteriorated last year, Zhang Bao, who originally had no big ideas, gradually developed ambitions under the instigation of his subordinates.

He began to think about a question.

Back then, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang called out the idea of ​​"Are kings, princes, generals, and ministers of different species?", and his elder brother inherited this loyalty and established the Dayu Dynasty.

Then
Chen Sheng and Wu Guang could do it, his brothers could do it, why couldn’t he?
This huge empire was built by him and his brother. Now that his brother is about to die of illness, shouldn't this empire be handed over to him?
If not in his hands, who else can I give it to?
Give it to their younger brother?
Zhang Bao was very sure that Zhang Liang did not have such ability. Even Zhang Liang himself had surrendered to him, saying that he had no ambition to become emperor and only wanted to be an ordinary king.

Give the child to the eldest brother?
That child is only a teenager now!
It would be fine if it were a peaceful and prosperous time, but in these turbulent times, can his nephew Zhang Cheng grasp the benefits?
The water is too deep here!
I can't control my own nephew!
It is better to let him, a mature and steady man who has experienced ups and downs and followed his elder brother to establish the Dayu Dynasty!

In the Temple of Heavenly Master
Zhang Bao gathered his thoughts, then looked at Zhang Jue and whispered, "Your Majesty, I pay my respects to you. May you live forever and enjoy endless happiness."

Zhang Jue just waved his hand and looked at his brother standing in front of him with a nostalgic look on his face: "No need to be polite."

He coughed lightly: "How is the situation now?"

Zhang Bao lowered his head and carefully reported the battle situation in recent days.

Because of Sun Ce's defeat in the battle in the south, most of Jiaozhou is now under their control, and a small part of Jiaozhou was divided up by Cao Cao.

Speaking of this, Zhang Bao still looked somewhat indignant.

"Cao Cao is a thief who took advantage of the situation. Even without him, we could have taken Jiaozhou. But now they have taken away nearly a quarter of Jiaozhou's territory!"

Zhang Jue sighed and then nodded at Zhang Bao.

"Cough-cough-"

His cough came very quickly, and Zhang Jue covered his mouth with a handkerchief, which was stained with blood.

In fact, he also knew what was spreading in Linjing City.

If Zhang Bao is capable enough, what would happen even if Dayu is handed over to Zhang Bao?

But Zhang Bao is definitely not that kind of person.

He explained in a low voice: "Jiaozhou is a wild land. It is not a bad thing for Jiaozhou to be divided between us and Cao Cao now."

"At least in some parts, we have made some substitutions with Cao Cao."

"Didn't you notice?"

"After Cao Cao participated in the battle of Jiaozhou, most of the Cao army in the frontline of the Cao-Liu alliance began to work without putting in any effort?"

Zhang Jue looked at the feng shui map on the table and said, "Look here. If Cao Cao had not shown mercy in this battle, do you think our soldiers would have been able to hold out until now?"

"Liu Bei obviously knew this, but he had no way to deal with it."

After Zhang Jue had exhausted all his coughing, he leaned back on the cushion and shook his head: "You are too impatient and cannot see the real key to anything. If you can see the key, you will be able to become a qualified general."

Today, Zhang Baoxiu is no longer qualified to be an emperor, and he is not even qualified to be a general.

If Zhang Bao was not his younger brother, why would he confer the title of "General Digong" on him?

Looking at Zhang Bao's somewhat indignant back, Zhang Jue lowered his head and sighed again. He really couldn't wait too long.

I don't know when that person will arrive.

The ninth year of Tiantai, winter.

Heavy snow covered the city of Linjing, which was a rare heavy snowfall in Linjing City.

Linjing is located in the south, where snow is actually rare. Many people in Linjing have never seen snowflakes in their lives, and the heavy snow on this day made the people in Linjing feel something was wrong.

Outside the city, a carriage was moving slowly, with a man with a mask on his face sitting in the carriage.

The mask on the man's face was very ferocious. There was a long scar on his face, and the mask seemed to exist just to cover up the scar.

The man driving the carriage was very respectful: "Master, we will be in Linjing soon."

The man sitting in the carriage nodded. His voice was hoarse and his age could not be told. He could be thirty or forty. There was an indescribable charm in his voice that made people subconsciously want to believe it.

He was wearing a coarse Taoist robe and had no decorations on his body.

His hair is black with some white, and the interweaving of black and white makes him look older.

He did not choose to pin his hair up and wear a crown like ordinary people. Instead, he let his hair down like the most ordinary people.

If it happened in the dark, I'm afraid many people would shout that it was a "monster".

In fact, he is indeed called a "demon" in the world.

He is the "Ancestor Heavenly Master".

A man whose hands are stained with the blood of aristocratic families.

The carriage slowly stopped outside Linjing City. An old man in ordinary clothes stood there with a look of surprise and fatigue on his face.

The cold wind blew on his body, making his already sickly face look even more haggard.

After getting off the car, Zu Tianshi walked up to the man with a bit of nostalgia on his face: "Your Majesty, I have heard of your great name for a long time." Standing here waiting for Zu Tianshi was none other than the contemporary emperor of Dayu, the contemporary Great Sage Master of the Taiping Dao, General Tiangong, the Most Holy Heavenly Master, Zhang Jue!

Zhang Jue just smiled. He looked at Zu Tianshi's face and sighed, "Why are you doing this?"

The ancestor Tianshi just said indifferently: "For the common people of the world, find joy in suffering."

Zhang Jue sighed again after hearing Zu Tianshi's answer. He didn't know what to say for a moment, so he could only say, "Let's go. I've been waiting for you for a long time."

Amidst the wind and snow, the two people slowly walked into the city of Linjing.

A great change is about to happen, but no one in the world knows the situation yet.

The tenth year of Tiantai.

According to the records of the Dayu Dynasty, this year was the most critical and important year for Dayu.

Countless changes occurred in this short year, many of which remained secret until thousands of years later. People were very curious about what happened in that year, but the only two people who knew about it, the royal family of Dayu, the future Yuzhang Zhang family and the Guandu Chen family, kept silent about it.

It was not until more than 1,500 years later, as the world underwent tremendous changes, that an unworthy descendant of the Yuzhang Zhang family made public all the events of that year for the sake of profit. It was also at this time that the identity of the "Ancestor Heavenly Master" was completely exposed and his reputation underwent a huge reversal.

But now, more than 1,500 years ago, everything was happening slowly and peacefully.

The tenth year of Tiantai, spring.

Zhang Jue, the Emperor of Dayu, the Great Sage Master of the Taiping Dao, the Most Holy Heavenly Master, and the God of Heaven, issued an edict when no one expected it.

The content of the edict is very simple.

A formal sacrificial ceremony was held to offer sacrifices to the Yellow Heaven and the Blue Heaven, and the "Ancestor Heavenly Master" was conferred the title of the chief of the Four Heavenly Masters, the title of "General Tiangong", the title of "Great Sage and Good Master", the title of "Supreme Holy Heavenly Master", the title of "Ancestor Heavenly Master" as the leader of the state religion "Taiping Dao", and the title of "Ancestor Heavenly Master" as the National Master of Dayu.

And all matters related to the "Taiping Dao" were handed over to the "Ancestor Tianshi" for management.

The former Great Sage and Good Teacher, Most Holy Heavenly Teacher, General Tiangong, and Taoist Taiping Zhang Jiao resigned from all his positions just to serve His Majesty the "Emperor" of Dayu.

Change the popular title of Zhang Jiao as “Tianshi”.

This news was so explosive and shocking that everyone looked at it with awe the moment it came out.

What is Dayu going crazy about?

What is the emperor doing?
Only Liu Bei in Chang'an City and Cao Cao in Langya City sighed silently, because they knew very well what Zhang Jue was doing.

In the past, Dayu was a country with "integration of politics and religion". The emperor of the country and the leader of the sect were the same person, which was actually not a good thing for the country's inheritance.

Now, the emperor has taken the initiative to hand over the position of sect leader to another person, so that he can better take on the position of "emperor".

This is also something that only he, as the founder of the "Taiping Dao" and the "founding monarch" of Dayu, could do. Any emperor in later generations would encounter great resistance if he tried to do it.

"Zhang Jue made a good move."

Liu Bei sighed silently, then looked at Zhuge Liang beside him and said, "Kong Ming, why do you think Zhang Jue trusts the ancestor Tianshi so much?"

Zhuge Liang's expression was just a little melancholy. He looked at Liu Bei and said, "Of course it's because that Zu Tianshi was someone Zhang Jiao was familiar with."

"Otherwise, how could such a huge empire be entrusted so easily?"

Liu Bei sat there in silence, the expression on his face changing.

How could he not know this? But he knew even more clearly that among the people Zhang Jue knew, none of them met the criteria of the "Ancestor Heavenly Master", and they could not spare the time to do those things.

There is probably only one person who can do what the "Ancestor Heavenly Master" did.

A person who is already dead.

He didn't want to admit it.

"perhaps."

Liu Bei sighed and said, "Perhaps it is because Zu Tianshi and Zhang Jue have the same aspirations that they do this."

Like Liu Bei, Cao Cao, who was far away in Langya, was also unwilling to admit all this.

He had also guessed this, so he was even more reluctant to admit it.

The tenth year of Tiantai.

After Zu Tianshi took charge of all affairs of Taiping Dao, he quickly separated Taiping Dao from Dayu. Only a part of the "Taoists" truly joined Taiping Dao, and the rest were just believers.

After being included in the list, these "Taoists" began to "seek immortals and seek the way", and built their own "Taoist temples" within the Dayu Dynasty with their own efforts.

There were almost no monks in the Dayu Dynasty, and the things that the Taoists did and the things they enjoyed were the same as those enjoyed by ordinary people of Dayu - except that they did not have to perform military service or corvee labor.

They also had to pay taxes for cultivating the land, and they also had to pay taxes for their incense.

"Taoist priest" is just their profession.

Rather than a "tool" for them to make profits.

There were monks in Dayu originally, but the Buddhist tradition was different from that of Taoism. They were unwilling to engage in production and only wanted to enjoy the incense and were unwilling to pay taxes. So under the order of Zhang Jue, the emperor of Dayu, the first anti-Buddhist movement in history began in Dayu.

The autumn of the tenth year of Tiantai soon arrived.

Many things happened this autumn, such as the decisive battle between Gongsun Zan, Liu Bei and Cao Cao, and the decision of "Dong Zhongying" of Liangzhou to defect to Dayu.

The tenth year of Tiantai.

Autumn.

Liangzhou was incorporated into the territory of Dayu. From then on, Dayu became almost the largest force in terms of area.

By the autumn of the tenth year of Tiantai, among the many separatist forces in the nine provinces of the world, only Gongsun Zan was left, still independent in the midst of the storm.

The tenth year of Tiantai, autumn.

Zhang Jue, the emperor of Dayu, issued an edict, appointing Dong Zhuo as the governor of "Liangzhou" and commanding all affairs of Liangzhou, and appointing "Qin Yingkan" as the governor of Liangzhou to assist Dong Zhuo in governing Liangzhou.

The Supreme Heavenly Master of the Taiping Dao, "Ancestor Heavenly Master", promulgated the "Astronomy", conferred on Dong Zhuo the title of "Great General of Wind and Thunder of the Nine Provinces who Suppresses Demons and Monsters" of the Taiping Dao, and listed him as one of the Thirty-eight Heavenly Generals of the Taiping Dao, and conferred on "Qin Yingkan" the title of "Great Judge of Justice, who is Upright, Literary and Brave", and listed him as one of the Seventy-two Judges of the Taiping Dao.

The tenth year of Tiantai, autumn.

Zhuojun.

The storm was raging and the army was lined up.

The decisive battle will take place now.

(End of this chapter)