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

Chapter 444 Extra: [Long Live Emperor Zhang Annian]

My name is Zhang Annian.

This is my absurd and decadent life.

I forgot how old I was when I was born, but later I heard from others that my mother died of dystocia after giving birth to me. My father hated me so much for this reason and said that I was an evil star sent from the sky, who would bring misfortune to my father, mother, younger brother, younger sister, older brother, older sister, older teacher, and younger apprentice. I was a rare unlucky star.

My birth will kill everything and eventually drag the entire Dayu into the abyss.

Because of this prophecy, I was sent to the cold palace. For some reason, the emperor didn't want to kill me, but he didn't want me to live either.

Fortunately, my mother left me some inheritance.

A young eunuch named Ying'an was very hungry, so he secretly ate something. When he was about to be beaten to death, my mother saw him and pleaded for him, allowing him to live.

The young eunuch was grateful and when he learned that his benefactor had died in childbirth and his only son was thrown into the cold palace with no one to take care of him, he volunteered to come to the cold palace to raise me.

The cold palace is really cold.

Later I learned that the so-called cold palace was not a special palace, but if someone was not favored, then the palace would become a cold palace from then on.

Because without the emperor's favor, everything in the palace would become cold - all the institutions in the palace would subconsciously, intentionally or unintentionally ignore this place, and then... there would be no charcoal fire in winter and no ice in summer. These were just small things. Most of the time, what we ate was not even as good as what the dogs in the more favored palaces ate.

The same goes for me, your master.

Everyone knows that I am not favored by my father - what's more, everyone knows that my father actually wants me dead, so they bully me even more severely.

They just thought, what if one day my father found out who killed me and rewarded them?
But how could these servants know that if such a day really came, the first person to die would be the person who was directly related to my death, that is, my father, and he wanted to save face.

Even if these were caused by his suggestion.

Gradually, I grew older. When I was six or seven years old, I could only sit in the palace every day and look at the persimmon tree outside. No one knew the origin of this tree. It seemed that a bird brought the seeds, which then quietly took root, sprouted, and finally grew into a tree like this.

Every autumn, Ying'an and I look forward to the persimmon tree growing bigger and bigger, and hope it can bear more fruits.

Whether storing the persimmons to make persimmon cakes or keeping them to eat slowly, for us in the cold palace, it is a great thing and a rare thing that can satisfy our cravings.

That day, I sneaked out of the palace, but heard a surprising news on the long palace corridor.

It turns out that the reason why I didn’t die was not because my father pitied me, but because when the attendant reported the news to my father, there was a person named "Chen Zhi".

I began to wonder, what kind of person could save me with just a simple sentence like “Your Majesty should not kill your son”?
How much power does such a person have?
From that day on, I really wanted power.

I sat under the persimmon tree and thought for a day and a night, and finally decided to start looking into the whereabouts and deeds of this "Chen Zhi".
I don't want to spend the rest of my life in the cold palace. I want to gain power, live a good life, and preferably take care of Ying'an in her old age.

After hearing my idea, Ying'an was a little surprised, but he gritted his teeth and decided to help me.

He spent the money he had saved for many years, as well as the gifts my mother had given him, and finally exchanged his position as a eunuch guarding the palace gate from a regular attendant.

This position was considered to be quite lucrative, so the eunuch just thought that Ying'an couldn't stand being in the cold palace, so he didn't care too much and just took the money and arranged this position for Ying'an.

He is a rare good guy in the palace. He will do things if he receives money. There are many people in the palace who take money but do nothing.

After a while, Ying'an told me everything he had found out.

It was also the first time I knew that there were such people in the world.

Chen family, Guandu Chen family.

The head of the Chen family, the King of Dayu, the most powerful person in the world of Dayu, and even if he wanted, he could become more powerful than his father.

But such people and such a family did not bring harm to the people like other aristocratic families. Instead, they were on the road of saving the people and saving all the people in the world.

I put some thought into it and at some point I met Chen Zhi.

That is my teacher.

When I first met the teacher, he was an old man walking forward with a stern face, and the expression on his face was not very friendly.

I suppressed my inner fear and pretended to bump into the teacher by accident, then blackmailed him for a meal. I said I couldn't eat, but the people in the imperial kitchen refused to give me any food, and I was almost starving to death.

I asked the teacher with tears in my eyes.
"I feel like you are a very knowledgeable person, so I want to ask you a question."

I used all my strength to disguise myself as a poor little person, looked at the teacher and asked, "Am I really a star of misfortune?"

"Will it kill everyone?"

The teacher stood there in a daze, and then the expression on his face instantly changed, as if he knew who I was.

At that time, the teacher did nothing but took out some silver from his sleeve and put it in my hand.

He patted my head and told me.

"There is no such thing as a star of destiny in this world."

The teacher asked me to wait.

I waited and waited in the palace with the silver in my hand.

The flowers on the persimmon tree had wilted and I hadn’t received any news from the teacher yet, so I thought I had failed.

But that day, when I climbed up the tree to pick persimmons in an attempt to feed myself, a young eunuch came over. He had bullied me before, calling me a disaster star and saying even worse things.

Now his face showed an unprecedented humility and respect.

He walked up to me, called me "Seventh Prince" for the first time, and then said carefully: "Your Majesty, please come over."

Father emperor?

I wondered in confusion why my father would ask me to come over.

When I arrived at the Qinzheng Hall and saw my father, I realized that it was my teacher.

The teacher argued with my father for many days, and in the end the teacher won. My father agreed to let the teacher take me out of the palace and go to Guandu to be recuperated.

My father said that I was a disaster star, but my teacher said that I was not a disaster star. I was just a poor child who lost his mother and then his father. I was just an lonely child.

The teacher also said that there has never been any disaster in this world, it is just the superstitious words of the world.

Chen does not believe in God, Buddha, Taoism or heaven. He only believes that man can conquer nature, that heaven is vigorous and that a gentleman should constantly strive for self-improvement.

Later, I came to Guandu Chen family.

Guandu City is really big, even bigger than Kyoto. The people here are happy every day, as if they are looking forward to the next day.

When they heard that I was the young master of the Chen family, they all liked me very much. Sometimes they liked to give me some fruits, other dishes, snacks, etc. From them, I learned about another Chen.

A Chen family who is based among the people, who has always worked diligently to benefit the people, protect the people of the world, and take the people of the world as his own responsibility.

The years I spent in Guandu City were the happiest years of my life.

This is the paradise on earth. When the Chen family's children go out, they are never as arrogant as my brothers.

Even the teacher's eldest son and the next generation heir of the Chen family are the same. In their eyes, there seems to be no distinction between high and low, no different identities, and no innate nobility.

The descendants of the Chen family are proud of their common origin. They walk among the people and do what they can for the people.

Of course, there are also some playboys, like my royal brother and his friends.

But these playboys are not arrogant or do all kinds of bad things. They just don’t like to do those "lowly" things, or they don’t think they are "lowly". They just want to "enjoy".

But their enjoyment was restrained.

Let me put it this way, in any small family I met later, even the most unsuccessful children enjoyed a more luxurious life than those of the Chen family's children.

It seems that the only enjoyment of the Chen family’s children is “freedom”.

They will spend money and throw it around, but they won't do so on inexplicable things - the people I've met spend it on food, drinks, and to make things they like.

But neither eating, drinking, nor having fun is built on the suffering of ordinary people.

After they gave away their money, they also gave it to ordinary people. Not only did ordinary people not live a miserable life because of these dissolute behaviors, but they became happier.

During the past few years in Guandu, I have been immersed in Zhushen Tower.

I read many books that are not available to the outside world, but the more I read these books, the more uncomfortable and painful I felt.

My mind was constantly struggling and on the verge of collapse.

Until one day, I read a book by Chen Ye, the ancestor of the Chen family. This book cannot even be considered a book, it can only be considered as "miscellaneous talks". This miscellaneous talks recorded many thoughts about Chen Ye, the ancestor of the Chen family.

I couldn't understand some of the words, so I took the book to ask the teacher's eldest son.

My teacher's eldest son is not much older than me, but his knowledge is much more profound than mine.

To this day, I still remember the change in my teacher's eldest son's expression when he saw the book. He asked me where I had seen the book and how much I had read.

I had actually read the whole thing and memorized it all, but I suspected that there was something wrong with the content of the book, so I told him, "I didn't see anything. I only read one page and felt that I couldn't understand it. I found it in a corner of Zhuoshen Building."

He took the book and walked away in a hurry.

Later, Zhuoshen Building was closed for a period of time. When it reopened, some of the books in the corners had disappeared.

I know, it was Chen Zhan who took it away.

But it's okay.

I have read all those books.

I started learning a little bit at a time, and then repeated some words from those books every day - silently repeating them in my heart.

It was not until later that I understood what those words meant.

"There is no distinction between noble and humble people in the world. All people are just humble creatures in the world."

"If someone tells us who is noble and who is lowly, then we must beat that person to death because he is trying to put himself above everyone else."

“If there are truly noble people in this world, they are the hardworking people; if there are truly lowly people in this world, they are the ruling class that lives on the people.”

"Princes, generals and prime ministers, would you rather have the seed?"

Time passed by little by little, and I grew up.

My brothers died one by one, and finally I was the only child left by my father to inherit the throne. He was unwilling to give the throne to his brothers' children, so he had to let me go back.

After all, I am his biological child.

My father passed away soon after I returned to the palace.

The teacher was busy cleaning up the mess left by my father, so he didn't pay attention to the harem. The "Empress Dowager", my father's widow, wanted to take power, so she placed many spies around me, including several of those who bullied me when I was young.

She thought this would scare me.

pity.

I took advantage of Xiudao's mood swings and hacked several of them to death.

When the long sword slashed across the attendant's neck, he was still frightened and confused. He thought he was following the orders of the Queen Mother, so I didn't dare to touch him, but he forgot who I was.

I went to the Queen Mother's palace with a sword dripping with blood, and slashed her twice, one of which cut off her hand.

None of the palace guards dared to move, they were all scared by me.

Although the ruling power of the Taoist soldiers is not in my hands, they dare not put me in danger. This is also one of the reasons why I dare to come and kill the Queen Mother.

After that, I took the opportunity of indulging in the search for immortals and asking for the way to start controlling the harem. I handed over all government affairs to the teacher because I knew that the teacher would do a good job.

Later, the teacher died.

I didn't cry that day.

I just told Chen Zhan what I wanted to do.

I told him that I had not forgotten a single word of the books I read in my childhood, and I told him that I wanted to use my life to tell everyone that the emperor was just an ordinary person.

I want to tell everyone in the world.

There is no such thing as noble or humble in this world.

My plan was successful.

Yang Jian wanted to seize power and usurp the throne and sit in this lonely and cold position.

I looked at Ying'an beside me and smiled. Ying'an's temples had already turned a little pale.

He is also ready.

I stood up and blew out the candle.

Just like when I was in the cold palace.

When I was young, Ying'an was the only one by my side.

Now, when I am about to die, Ying'an is the only one by my side.

The candle went out and lightning flashed across the sky outside.

I'm getting ready to die.

I sacrifice my blood to tell the world that no one is born to be superior!
(End of this chapter)