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

Chapter 394: Politics is the Art of Compromise (Part )

Before this negotiation, many aristocratic families had actually understood the cause and purpose of this "incident". The reason they came to Langya City was certainly not to really negotiate with Cao Pi, but to find Cao Pi and ask him to come up with a "feasible solution."

In other words, what Cao Pi really wants to do.

The leader of many aristocratic families is today's Xun family. However, Xun Yu, who should be the most trusted member of the Xun family by the new King of Wei, refused to come forward to discuss this matter with Cao Pi. He stayed indoors in his mansion.

Afterwards, the noble families once again chose a new leader, or a "spokesperson".

Xun You.

Prime Minister's Mansion

Before sitting opposite Cao Pi, Xun You was still very confident that he could deal with this willful King of Wei.

But after sitting in front of Cao Pi, Xun You's confidence disappeared a lot.

He looked at the King of Wei, who appeared to be a "dandy boy", and felt the firm belief in his eyes and his ambition which was greater than that of Prime Minister Cao.

This is incredibly ambitious.

Xun You seemed to have guessed what Cao Pi was trying to do by going through so much trouble.

But that ambition was too big. Even if the power of many families was gathered, it would be difficult to accomplish that goal - it was just difficult to do, not impossible.

Xun You looked at Cao Pi, whose expression remained unchanged and even silent, and thoughts rose in his mind.

What kind of trump card does Cao Pi have that makes him so confident that the noble families will help him realize his ambition?
After a long silence, Xun You finally lost his temper. He looked at Cao Pi directly and said, "King Wei, we are here, and you have achieved your goal."

"What does the King of Wei want to stop this self-destructive behavior?"

Xun You's words were not very polite, because the relationship between the Cao family and many aristocratic families was originally a kind of "cooperation".

Although the two are in the same boat, either party can get off at any time. The relationship between them is only a cooperative relationship, not a so-called "subordinate" relationship.

Cao Pi slowly picked up the grapes on the table in front of him, and then ate them leisurely.

"what do you want?"

"Didn't Mr. Xun guess what I wanted?"

"If you really didn't guess it, then you are really disappointing to me."

Xun You was silent for a moment and then said, "Then the King of Wei should also know how great the risks will be after doing this kind of thing. Why should our family support the Cao family? It should be understood that it does not matter to us whether the Liu family or the Cao family becomes the emperor."

His eyes were like sharp swords, piercing straight into Cao Pi's body, and the coldness in his brows could not be concealed.

But Cao Pi didn't care about these at all.

He smiled and said, "I know what you want to ask, sir."

Cao Pi pointed to a document on the table in front of him and said, "I think everything you want to know should be recorded in this document."

"This is the confidence of this king."

"I also believe that this is what you all want most."

What do you want most?
Xun You wanted to laugh. Why did Cao Pi think that he could offer a "benefit" that would satisfy all the noble families?
In other words, how much benefit would it take to make the many noble families desperately help the Cao family? Even ignoring the long sword that could fall on their heads at any time?
He picked up the document and looked at it carefully.

However, the few words he read were like thunder, shocking Xun You completely. His hands trembled slightly, and his gaze at the document became slower and slower, obviously trying to understand the contents of the document carefully.

There was even a hint of smile in Cao Pi's eyes.

Control the noble family?

That was simply too easy. He believed that after reading this document, even if Xun You wanted to object, the other noble families would instantly tear this "spokesperson" to pieces, and then come to him to express their loyalty and express their willingness to support him as the emperor!

Yes.

Cao Pi's ambition was simple.

That is to complete what his father failed to complete!
He wants to be the Son of Heaven, he wants to be the Emperor!
He wants to replace Liu.

Cao replaced Liu!

A crown with eleven tassels?
joke.

This was just his way of bringing about the "Killing of Confucianists" disaster, and then making these high and mighty aristocratic families bow their heads again to find bargaining chips and introductions for his negotiations. What he wanted was definitely not the eleven tassels that were only below the emperor.

What he wanted was a crown with twelve tassels!

Become the emperor who is high above!
Half an hour later, Xun You, who had finally finished reading the contents of the document, slowly exhaled, and then silently looked at Cao Pi who was sitting there.

The content of this document is very simple, it just records a "system".

But it was this system that prevented Xun You from saying "no".

He, or the aristocratic family, must seize this opportunity, try their best and do everything they can to make Cao Pi agree to pilot this policy, and make the Cao family the ruler of the world at all costs - as long as Cao Pi can pilot this system called "Nine-Rank System".

What is the Nine-Rank System?
This is a system for selecting and appointing officials.

Officials were divided into three ranks: upper, middle and lower. Each rank was further divided into three ranks, for a total of nine ranks. These were the "nine ranks" in the Nine-Rank System.

So where does “neutrality” come from?
It refers to a type of official position in this system of selecting officials, called "Zhongzhengguan".

There are two ranks of Zhongzhengguan, big and small. The powers held by the big Zhongzhengguan and the small Zhongzhengguan are also different. The big Zhongzhengguan can recommend official positions of "first to sixth ranks", which are the upper and middle ranks.

Xiaozhongzhengguan can recommend officials from the seventh to the ninth rank.

This system of selecting officials seems very fair, but some small "marks" in certain places make it a tool that allows aristocratic families to control power from generation to generation.

For example, in the Nine-Rank System, the Zhongzheng official had to recommend officials, so what were the criteria for recommendation?

There is three.

First, family background.

Second, character.

Third, talent.

It is called the third grade.

Since the responsibility of the Zhongzheng official is so heavy, who can serve as this Zhongzheng official?
Look at two things at the same time.

Family background and official position.

Xun You used a very strong intuition to see all the concepts contained therein. He could even assert that after the Nine-Rank System was implemented, no one who was not from an aristocratic family would appear in the top-ranking official positions, and the children of aristocratic families would never fall into the lower-ranking official positions!
There are no poor families in the upper class, and no aristocratic families in the lower class!
Such a sentence quickly appeared in Xun You's mind.

He licked the corner of his dry mouth, then looked up at Cao Pi, who was sitting on the Diaoyutai, with a very stable expression, without even a little change. He was wrong.

Before, when Xun Yu recommended Cao Pi to Cao Cao as the Crown Prince of Wei, he also criticized his uncle, saying that he was too naive. Why did he recommend such a person?
But now, when he saw the document in his hand, Xun You wanted to say to his uncle, it has to be you!
He made a prompt decision and said without any hesitation: "As long as Your Highness is willing to implement the Nine-Rank System and let the children of the noble families serve as the Zhongzheng officials for the first time, then we, the noble families, are willing to do our best to help Your Highness fulfill all your wishes!"

Xun You's mind worked quickly: "Among the six great families, all the people of this generation have entered the court as officials to assist His Highness in controlling the court."

"And the noble families are willing to invest more money to help Your Highness quell the chaos in the world!"

He raised his head, his eyes burning, "I wonder if Your Highness is satisfied with such sincerity?"

Cao Pi looked at Xun You's eyes full of greed and sat there looking at him. Just when Xun You thought Cao Pi would make more requests, Cao Pi laughed, and this laugh was hearty and incomparable.

"Mr. Wen Ruo helped me ascend the throne, and now he is willing to assist me. I am naturally willing to do so."

Cao Pi vaguely mentioned the things that Xun Yu had done to help him in the past, and Xun You quickly understood.

His heart quickly dropped to his stomach.

Why would he do this thankless task?
Of course, it’s because they want to please the new king.

Isn’t this the benefit?
Cao Pi's meaning was very clear. After the implementation of the Nine-Rank System, there must be a place for the Xun family among the first batch of Grand Zhongzheng officials!
What huge benefits does this represent?

Xun You simply couldn't imagine it.

In the twelfth year of Yuan'an, winter.

The disaster of killing Confucian scholars was quelled.

The King of Wei publicly stated that the emperor's edict was not his intention, but a decision made by the emperor without consulting him, and he was not aware of the previous killing of many Confucian scholars.

He had been seriously ill in bed several months ago due to excessive grief over his father's death. The order to kill Ru was entirely made by a servant beside him in order to please him.

This servant had taken care of him since he was a child and did not want him to be too sad and busy because of these things, so he pretended to convey the King of Wei's orders to the people below.

The King of Wei also knew that this incident had already happened, and no matter who caused it or whether he was the one who caused it, he needed to take responsibility.

Therefore, he would give some money to the families of those great scholars, hoping that they could live a stable life. He also said that after examining the identities and talents of these people, if there were any who met the requirements, he would recommend them to the emperor and give them the status of "filial and honest".

This is almost like promising these people a "future career" in the capacity of "King of Wei".

Winning people's hearts has always been something that Chinese officials, or Chinese dignitaries, are good at. After all, this is a very simple thing to do.

Give some money to those who are short of money, and give a chance to those who want a career.

As for the stubborn ones?
Be a role model and just beat him to death.

Treat them to guests, behead them, and accept them as dogs.

China's ruling class is already very familiar with this trick.

Soon, the dark cloud surrounding King Wei's head disappeared.

Among the dozen or so great Confucian scholars who were killed, the sons of ten of them were given the status of "Xiao Lian", and two of them did not need the status of Xiao Lian, but their families were poor, so the King of Wei gave them a large amount of silver and money.

Ten thousand gold.

This is a number that is enough to knock anyone unconscious.

And what about the leader of the group, the very stubborn one?
He died quietly during a trip, so silent, as if he had encountered bandits.

After learning the news of this gentleman's death, the King of Wei expressed great mourning and indignation. He ordered General Xu Chu to lead 500 Tiger and Leopard Cavalry to strangle all the bandits in that area without leaving a single one alive, and used the heads of hundreds of bandits to comfort the gentleman's soul in heaven.

So, the matter was over very quickly.

In addition to the fact that the parties involved had given up on attacking the King of Wei, another incident also occurred.

In the 13th year of Yuan'an, the emperor issued an edict.

It was a long and boring edict, with many meaningless and redundant words in it.

This is how it translates into human language.

"The way the imperial court selects officials has not changed for a long time. Reform is the foundation of a country. Why was the Qin State able to stand out from the seven countries? In addition to the merits of the Chen family, the biggest reason is that they changed the way officials were appointed."

"I have pondered for a long time and finally came up with a new method of selecting officials."

What follows is a set of words of praise that would be regarded as nonsense if written down, and then it talks about the "Nine-Rank System".

And at the end of the edict it was stated that although the Nine-Rank System was implemented, it did not mean that the status of filial and honest officials had lost its function. On the contrary, the first batch of officials recommended for "ranks" were selected from among those who were filial and honest.

This is an imperial edict.

The second edict was very simple and clear.

The emperor issued an edict: appointing Chen Ying of the Guandu Chen family as the head of the Dazhong Zhengguan, and also appointing Chen Qun of the Yingchuan Chen family, Xun You and Xun Yu of the Xun family, Lu Yang of the Fanyang Lu family, Wang Ping of the Langya Wang family, Zhuge Ke of the Langya Zhuge family, and Xie Liuyun of the Langya Xie family as the Dazhong Zhengguan.

In addition, sixteen people were appointed as Xiaozhongzheng officials.

In addition to the six major families in Langya, the Guandu Chen family also has a Da Zhong Zheng Guan, and he is the chief of the Da Zhong Zheng Guan.

Although this made the six major families very dissatisfied, they could not utter a word of resistance, and they did not even dare to say anything. Who dared to say that the Chen family was not qualified?
Xun Yu's Residence

Xun You had a helpless look on his face: "Originally, this position of "the head of the Grand Central Officials" belonged to you, but who would have thought that it would be snatched away by someone from the Chen family."

He scratched his head: "What does Chen mean by this? Do they also want to participate in this battle? But what does it mean to only send a collateral descendant of the family?"

Xun Yu shook his head: "Perhaps, Chen Ying was not sent by the Chen family."

He looked into the distance calmly: "The Chen family has never interfered with the choices of any of their children, just like the Zhuge family. There is a Zhuge Ke on the Langya side, there was also a Zhuge Jin on the Sun side, and there is also a "Zhuge Liang" on the Chang'an side."

Xun Yu chuckled: "Not putting all the bets in one place is the inertia of the noble families."

"We also need to plan ahead."

The thirteenth year of Yuan'an.

In addition to issuing such an edict, Langya also took many actions that others could not understand this year.

But no one cares.

Everyone's attention was attracted by an incident that happened in "Dayu".

Dayu
Linjing City

Zhang Cheng looked at the Master Zu Tianshi in front of him with surprise on his face: "Are you telling the truth?"

(End of this chapter)