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

Chapter 393: Politics is the art of compromise (Part )

The spring of the twelfth year of Yuan'an was a truly spring day for Liu Xie, the King of Langya.

Because the Han prime minister who had been suppressing him died.

The death of Cao Cao was like explosive good news to Liu Xie. After learning the news, Liu Xie did not sleep all night.

The first day of the first month of the twelfth year of Yuan'an.

Liu Xie felt that the sun outside was even warmer, even though the sun did not appear for long before the rain began to fall again.

"Today's weather is really nice."

There was no smile on Liu Xie's face, but from his eyes, one could see countless "excitement" and happiness.

The eunuchs and palace maids serving around him did not speak. It was not that Liu Xie did not have that much "power", even if it was just a smile.

"Go to court."

After the eunuch beside him changed Liu Xie's clothes, Liu Xie slowly walked towards the front hall.

After the Battle of Chibi, he was indeed imprisoned in the deep palace and was not allowed to go out, but now that Cao Cao is dead, he still needs to come out, and he firmly believes that after this time, he will be able to quickly gather the remaining "forces" of Cao Cao.

After all, he is the real "Son of Heaven".

There is destiny in you.

Guandu
Chen Zexi sent out the last letter. He understood that a huge change was about to happen, and this change would reshuffle the situation in the world.

Great changes in the world will soon come again.

Perhaps not long after this great change, the world will be able to return to peace and stability again.

Chen Zexi did not dare to hope that unification could come in just a few decades, but he felt that he might be able to look forward to the world being unified again before his death.

Weiyang Palace
Liu Xie's expression was very ugly, and there seemed to be a flame rising in his chest.

He stared at the person in front of him: "What do you want to do!"

"I am the Son of Heaven!"

"How dare you humiliate me like this?!"

In front of Liu Xie stood a not very young man who was wearing a python robe but looked more like a dragon robe. He just stood there and his face did not look very good either, but he was different from Liu Xie.

Liu Xie was too angry, while he was "sick".

"Cough-cough-"

After a series of coughs, Cao Pi just smiled. He stood there, his eyes filled with the kind of "ambition" that the previous prime minister Cao Cao did not have. Just by looking into his eyes, you could understand the difference between him and Cao Cao.

It is the same even though he looks 70% similar to Cao Cao.

"Your Majesty, you should just stay in this Weiyang Palace."

Cao Pi's voice sounded, with a bit of disdain and even impatience.

"The outside world is too dangerous for Your Majesty. If Your Majesty were to encounter any danger, how would I explain it to the people of the world?"

"Your Majesty, you don't want to die suddenly outside one day, right?"

This was meant as a reminder, but in fact it was more like a threat.

Liu Xie's expression became even gloomier, and it was at this time that he began to miss the deceased Prime Minister Cao.

At least before he committed the "Battle of Red Cliffs", Cao Cao's attitude towards him had always been relatively respectful, or at least he had done a good job in saving face.

Even after the Battle of Red Cliffs, when he was so angry, he was only imprisoned in the Weiyang Palace. If he really wanted to go out, he could still do so, and even if he wanted to meet outsiders, he could do so.

Rather than imprisonment, it can be considered "surveillance" at best.

But now.
Liu Xie subconsciously looked towards the empty and desolate Weiyang Palace. Most of the items in the Weiyang Palace had been moved away, and only two eunuchs who had served him since childhood were left by Liu Xie's side.

This place is more like a "cold palace".

Liu Xie began to get scared.

But Cao Pi in front of him obviously did not have as good a temper as Cao Cao. He just warned Liu Xie a few words and then turned and left.

He has other things to do.

time does not wait.

He didn't have time to play the game of monarch-subject relationship with Liu Xie.

Watching Cao Pi's back getting farther and farther away, Liu Xie's expression finally showed a bit of panic, but at this time the sound of the palace door slowly closing was heard, and the sunlight outside seemed unable to shine into the hall.

It's getting darker and darker.

Finally, endless darkness completely buried the hall. It was like a habitat of darkness without any light.

In an instant, Liu Xie felt an endless coldness surging into his heart.

Cao Pi
Liu Xie closed his eyes.

He knew what Cao Pi was going to do, and he also knew what would happen to him after Cao Pi did that thing.

But is there any way for him to resist now?

No.

All I can do is keep waiting.

Wait quietly.

The twelfth year of Yuan'an, summer.

The Emperor of Langya issued an edict, ordering the Crown Prince of Wei, Cao Pi, to inherit the throne of Wei. At the same time, he appointed Crown Prince Cao Pi as regent and prime minister, and bestowed the nine gifts on him. He was allowed to enter the palace with a sword and shoes, and was praised but not named.

The twelfth year of Yuan'an, June.

Having just conferred a higher title on King of Wei Cao Pi last month, the emperor issued another decree, granting Cao Pi a crown with eleven tassels.

What does a crown with eleven tassels mean?
First of all, we need to talk about what exactly "旒" is.

In ancient times, crowns had tassels on the front and back to show solemnity, and they usually appeared on the crowns of very important court robes.

According to ritual governance, people of different ranks and status can only use different "tassels" in different situations.

Among them, the emperor's crown has twelve tassels, the princes' crown has nine tassels, the senior officials' crown has seven tassels, and the junior officials' crown has five tassels.

The fact that the emperor bestowed eleven tassels on the King of Wei only meant that the King's status and identity at that time, according to etiquette, was second only to the emperor and above all the princes.

and--

This is not in accordance with the rule of propriety and is a violation of the rule of propriety.

Many people in the world expressed dissatisfaction with the emperor's decree to confer titles, but the emperor did not withdraw the order, and they did not even see the emperor.

Every time he wanted to meet the emperor, the new prime minister would say that his majesty was not in good health and it was inconvenient for him to meet with anyone.

Some old-fashioned Han officials still thought that this was the time when Cao Cao was still alive. They wanted to use the criticism of the people of the world to make "Cao Pi" surrender and "release" the emperor.

But they forgot one thing.

Cao Cao is dead.

This is a new era, the era of Cao Pi.

It was obvious that Cao Pi had no feelings for the Han Dynasty, nor did he want to be a minister of the Han Dynasty - he even seemed to care little about his own reputation.

Something happened that shocked the whole world.

In the history books of Langya, this incident was recorded as "the disaster of killing Confucian scholars."

He simply and clearly pointed out what the incident was and called it a "disaster."

More than a dozen great Confucian scholars died in this catastrophe. Please note that we are not talking about the dead "Confucian scholars" here, but the "great Confucian scholars".

There are only about thirty people in the world who can be called "great scholars", and half of them died directly in this incident.

How can this not be called a disaster?

The reason why the incident broke out is very simple.

Because of the imperial edict that granted Cao Pi the "Eleven Tassels", and also because of Cao Pi's tough attitude in not allowing many of the Han Dynasty's former ministers to meet the emperor.

Many Confucian scholars began to impeach Cao Pi in the court, and no matter what Cao Pi did, there would be people criticizing him.

Confucian scholars and great scholars from all over the country continued to come to Langya and sit in protest in front of the Prince of Wei's palace.

They didn't talk, just sat there quietly.

Some Confucian scholars began to spread the news in Langya that "Cao Pi" had imprisoned the emperor. Although most people knew about this, it was not something that could be made clear.

Seeing that public opinion in the world was growing louder and louder, and even Chang'an expressed dissatisfaction with this, Cao Pi made another unimaginable decision.

He decided to arrest all the Confucian scholars who were sitting in protest, criticizing the government, and impeaching him, and convict them directly.

The decision was made smoothly.

The Confucian scholars were like a powder keg and could explode very quickly.

So, in the autumn of the twelfth year of Yuan'an, the situation became more and more serious.

It's almost reached a point where no one can control it.

Later on, the people involved in this matter were no longer just Confucian scholars, but also some other aristocratic families and other forces in Langya City. The eyes of people all over the world were focused on this city.

Countless people were staring at Cao Pi.

Waiting for his new reaction.

What was Cao Pi doing at this time?
He is worrying.

Inside the Prince of Wei's Palace
Cao Pi looked tired. Beside him sat Guo Jia and others. There was confusion in his eyes: "I just arrested a few people. Why did they react so strongly?"

Xun Yu closed his eyes.

He now felt a little regretful. He regretted that when Cao Cao asked him a few months ago who was suitable to be his successor, he answered Cao Pi's name.

This person is really good at disguising himself.

Before becoming the real King of Wei, he hardly showed any "wantonness" and "wildness", but after becoming the King of Wei, he did a series of explosive things in a short period of time, causing chaos in the entire Langya and even the entire world.

Among the crowd, there was only one person whose expression did not change at all. Instead, he lowered his head and said nothing.

This person's name is "Sima Yi".

He is the nth generation descendant of Sima Qian and is also the current head of the Sima family.

There was a gleam of contemplation in his lowered eyes.

Cao Pi doesn't seem like such a stupid person, so what is his purpose in doing this, even at the cost of portraying himself as a fool?
After removing all the "disguise" on the outside, Sima Yi quickly figured out Cao Pi's purpose.

This purpose is really too terrifying, but it seems very common.

Sima Yi couldn't control his emotions and subconsciously raised his head to look at "Cao Pi" who was sitting there.

At this moment, Cao Pi still had a panicked look on his face, but his deep eyes held a playful smile, even a bit of "badness".

In an instant, Sima Yi and Cao Pi's eyes met.

At the moment when their eyes met, Sima Yi swore that he saw the most "malicious" look in his life. It was a pair of devilish eyes, filled with nothing but ambition.

What Sima Yi could think of, top counselors such as Guo Jia and Xun Yu could naturally also think of.

This is a wonderful show directed by the new prime minister, the new King of Wei, and the new regent.

So everyone fell silent.

Cao Pi saw that everyone knew what was going on, and said with a somewhat malicious smile: "Why are you all silent?"

"My father entrusted me to you. Are you going to abandon me at this time?"

Looking at the silence of these top smart people, Cao Pi couldn't help but feel a "refreshing" feeling spreading in his heart.

Why did Cao Pi make this series of unwise actions?
It all started a month ago.

At that time, Cao Pi had just taken the throne of King of Wei and had even just become the Prime Minister of the Han Dynasty.

Although he inherited his father's "power", there were always people, there were always "old ministers" who were dissatisfied with him as the successor, especially some old ministers who supported his younger brother.

So, these people began to secretly make trouble for Cao Pi.

Some people even began to "obey orders but not announcements", which was a naked provocation to Cao Pi.

However, Cao Pi, who had just taken this position, had no better way to control everything, so he chose to drag everyone into the water.

After the incident became a big deal, is Cao Pi the only one being questioned?
No.

They are all the people who belong to the "Cao family" sphere of influence. All of these people were dragged into the water by Cao Pi one by one.

Cao Pi sat there, glancing at the counselors present.

I feel very happy.

Aren't you the top counselors? Aren't you the top smart people? Aren't you from a great family and very arrogant?
I want all of you smart people, and the noble families behind you, and all of you who looked down on me in the past, or even stood in front of me as my enemy, to find a solution for me.

We are all in the same boat. Either you can't figure out a way to die with me, or even die a more miserable death than me, or you just figure out a way for me and help me clean up the mess I have created.

This is the solution that Cao Pi came up with.

A person who is simply "shameless" and wants to overturn the table does not need others to praise him for his "wisdom and bravery", nor does he need his subordinates to "submit" him. This is something that only a person who scares them can do.

exactly.

Cao Pi is such a shameless person who does not think of himself as a "powerful and wise" person.

Hence, the current situation has come about.

The twelfth year of Yuan'an, October of autumn.

In the second month after the "Killing of Confucian Scholars" broke out, many aristocratic families in the world took action.

But there was nothing they could do.

Because Cao Pi had "soldiers", that is, "military power" in his hands.

At this time, the six top clans in the world, except the Guandu Chen clan, including the Yingchuan Chen clan, the Yingchuan Xun clan, the Fanyang Lu clan, the Langya Wang clan, the Langya Zhuge clan, and the Langya Xie clan, gathered in Langya City.

They want to have a face-to-face meeting with "Cao Pi".

(End of this chapter)