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

Chapter 447: Aotou
In the 13th year of Kaihuang, on a snowy day, a war broke out between Goguryeo and the Sui Dynasty.

There was no cause of the war. It was just that everyone had been suppressing their emotions for too long, so over the extended timeline, both sides were provoking each other.

Since the two countries went to war, such wars have occurred at least eight or nine times.

At first, no one thought this would be a "decisive battle".

But when the snow fell and covered the land, the war did not stop.

This war has gone on for too long.

It has been so long that people on both sides have begun to get tired of the war and want to end it.

Liaodongnan County, County Governor's Office
Guanshan stood in front of the feng shui map, which was already filled with flags. Some of these flags represented the soldiers of the Sui Dynasty, while others represented the soldiers of Goguryeo.

The war has gone on for too long.

He pressed his forehead, looked at the person next to him and said, "Do you think that kid's plan will succeed?"

Liu Yun, the governor of Liaodong County, who was standing nearby, shook his head slightly: "I don't know either. His plan is indeed a bit risky, but if it succeeds, we can attack along this place and quickly capture the advancing troops of Goguryeo."

"Then use this force as an anchor and march toward the capital of Goguryeo."

"It's just that this place is too remote and too cold."

Liu Yun looked at Guan Shan and said, "You can just let him go without worrying about it? He and that kid are the apples and oranges of Lord Chen and Duke Tang's eyes. If anything happens to them, even the emperor might lose your head."

Guan Shan smiled casually: "You underestimate Mr. Chen."

"I have asked Mr. Chen about this matter. Mr. Chen said that I know more about war than he does, so he should listen to me. As for whether something will happen to that kid—"

He stretched out his tone and said, "Mr. Chen said that the children of the Chen family are never afraid of sacrifice. As long as the boy is willing to go, it will be fine."

"Mr. Chen also said that this was a plan that the boy came up with himself, so he must have been the one to test it. The lives of Chen's children are no more precious than those of other soldiers. How can you use other people's lives to test the plans of Chen's children?"

After saying this, Guan Shan let out a long sigh.

"Honestly, Brother Liu, you and I have been brothers for so many years, would I harm you?"

"Aren't you going to join me?"

"The factional struggles in the court are getting more and more serious now. If you don't have a backer, I'm really afraid that you will fall into this factional struggle and become a victim of the fight between the two of them."

Liu Yun's expression was rather silent. He stood there and sighed again.

"After this time."

"After the war is over, I will go with you to see Mr. Chen."

"You're right. We can't delay this any longer."

He shook his head with a self-deprecating look on his face: "The prince's household manager and the retainers of the King of Jin have come to visit me. I really don't know what kind of ability a mere county governor has that could attract the attention of both the prince and the King of Jin."

Guan Shan sneered: "Of course it's because you can influence the direction of this war. They are trying to win you over just to get you to do some credit for their men at the end of this war."

"The war was irrigated with the blood of countless soldiers, but they want to take the final fruits away so easily. How can it be so easy?"

He shook his head again.

The current atmosphere in the Sui Dynasty is very bad.

It has almost become that as long as you have money and power, you can do everything. The people of the Sui Dynasty have forgotten the so-called oath of "speaking for the people". They just want to become the powerful people of earlier times and continue to squeeze benefits from the people.

Guanshan has no control over other places, but in Liaodong County, the fruits of victory will never be plundered by those powerful people.

This is Guanshan’s promise to the ordinary soldiers under his command.

"Stop talking about this."

He moved a flag on the feng shui map forward: "We have done everything we can. The rest depends on the boy's ability."

The bitter cold wind kept blowing on the soldiers in the night. A cavalry team was heading somewhere quickly without fear of the cold wind and heavy snow. Leading them were two young-looking boys.

It was Li Shimin and Chen Linan.

The two of them took the lead, walking in the front, holding their swords tightly in their hands.

Candle lights could be seen faintly in the distance. That was the Goguryeo's logistics troops, who were now setting up camp.

Chen Linan wiped the snowflakes off his face and grinned, "I say, Erfeng, let's have a competition. Let's see who can take it down first?"

Li Shimin's expression remained unchanged, but his eyes showed an eagerness to try.

He nodded: "This time, I will make you convinced!"

It's snowing heavily.

京都
Candle flames illuminated everything. Although the students in the examination room were shivering from the cold, they still held the pens firmly in their hands and were writing down what was in their hearts.

Chen Ruohan was not that cold. After all, although the Chen family did not exploit the people, they were still a wealthy family that had been passed down for hundreds of years. How could they not have wealth?
Ordinary scholars around him might use "cotton", but he used cotton plus fox fur, and the thick fur was spread on the ground, which made him look very warm.

What is burning on the ground is the valuable "golden money charcoal".

What is money carbon?

Golden money charcoal is made from golden nanmu wood. Once ignited, it can not only provide warmth, but also does not emit too thick smoke when burning. This kind of charcoal has always been used in the imperial palace. Even the emperor would not burn this kind of charcoal all the time.

Naturally, Chen would not use this kind of charcoal fire often.

But since Chen Ruohan came to Kyoto to take the exam, he naturally had to prepare everything to the best of his ability, just in case.

So he seemed very leisurely at this moment, not much different from usual times.

He looked at the question in front of him, thought carefully for a moment, and then started writing.

"Crash-"

The sound of pen strokes hitting paper could be heard. In the pitch-black night, Chen Ruohan was walking firmly on his own path.

"Whoohoo-"

Countless whistling cold winds blew by, and Chen Linan looked at the tents in the distance with a slight smile on his face: "Everyone."

He turned around and looked at everyone, his voice full of excitement: "This should be the last one! If we can get rid of this place, there will be no obstacles on the road for our army to move forward!"

"Follow me!"

Chen Linan pointed his sword at the flickering candlelight in the distance.

"To those who win first place, I will personally write a letter to ask for credit on your behalf!"

As soon as these words came out, there was some heat in the eyes of everyone behind him. They had followed this young captain to fight in these days, so naturally they knew something about him. He was the legitimate son of the Chen family!
That's Chen!
However, before they could get excited for too long, a sound of breaking air suddenly occurred in the wind and snow in the distance!

A flickering fire came from the farthest place, breaking through the silent snowy night sky, and then the fire ignited the entire group of tents!
Arrogant laughter came from a distance.

"Hahahahahahahahahaha, Shichiro, I'm here first!"

Chen Linan's face changed, and he gritted his teeth: "Fuck! Erlang got there first?"

"Brothers, stop talking nonsense and get on with it!"

The cavalrymen behind him also had ferocious looks on their faces, and the sound of horse hooves cut through the sky, as if they were going to tear everything apart!
No one can take credit for their achievements! Even if the person on the other side is one of their own!
Spring, the fourteenth year of Kaihuang.

The examination of the 13th year of Kaihuang has come to an end, and the list of admitted Jinshi candidates has been posted.

Chen Ruohan, Fang Xuanling, Du Ruhui and Wei Zheng stood in the Zhuangyuan Building with serious looks on their faces. Even though they were all very confident, they were still a little worried when the time came to announce the results.

Can I pass the exam?

Success or failure depends on this.

After decades of studying hard, one day you will embark on a path to success.

"Who is the Young Master Wei? Who is the Young Master Wei?"

A messenger came up with the good news, with a look of joy on his face: "Young Master Wei ranked eleventh on the list!"

Wei Zheng heaved a sigh of relief suddenly and was about to tease Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui who were nervous beside him, but he heard two people reporting good news in succession, one was tenth and the other was third.

He almost couldn't catch his breath.

Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui's laughter could be heard again: "Oh, Brother Xuancheng, I'm so sorry."

Fang Xuanling smiled and said, "I didn't expect that I would win the third place. Perhaps Your Majesty knows that I look like Pan An and comparable to Wei Jie?"

The Tanhua Lang always chooses the best-looking one.

Du Ruhui on the side rolled his eyes. He pointed at Chen Ruohan and said, "No matter how good-looking you are, can you be better looking than our Brother Cheng Tao?"

"It's just that His Majesty thinks you are far inferior to Brother Cheng Tao."

Wei Zheng was also teasing Du Ruhui, and the sound of good news came from afar.

One sound after another.

"Congratulations to Chen Ruohan and Master Chen from Guandu—"

"The top scorer in this year's high school exam, the top scorer in this year's exam!"

As the saying goes, the good news is heard everywhere, and today I am the number one on the list.

"Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha—I knew you were here to tell me the good news!"

Guan Shan patted the shoulders of Li Shimin and Chen Linan in front of him, making both of them grimace. Guan Shan's strength was indeed a bit too great, making it almost unbearable.

"Uncle Guan, how did you develop such strength?"

"It's really too big, it's a bit too much for me to bear."

Chen Linan rubbed his shoulders and said, "I think there will be bruises here."

Li Shimin also bared his teeth and said, "That's right, we two have made great contributions, shouldn't we be rewarded?"

"Why do you slap us right after you come back?"

Guan Shan scratched his head with a silly smile on his face: "Isn't this because Uncle Guan is too excited?"

"Look."

He pulled out a flag on a certain place on the geomancy map, and then pointed his finger forward and said: "This pass has been taken down, we can go straight along here to bypass some of Goguryeo's most important and most difficult cities, and head all the way to their capital."

"We can also go around and cut off the supply to these cities, then surround them directly."

"They won't be able to hold out for long in this cold winter day."

Guan Shan laughed again: "With your two successes this time, I can even pat my chest and guarantee to General Wang that we will definitely conquer Goguryeo within three months!"

Li Shimin and Chen Linan looked at each other and laughed: "Uncle Guan, can we two do it?"

How many years has Guanshan been an old fox?
He saw through Li Shimin and Chen Linan's thoughts at a glance and said immediately: "Don't worry, your contribution will definitely not be small."

"I will promote you two to be generals first."

He stroked his chin and said, "Wait for me to choose a nice name for both of you."

"Now, go back."

Li Shimin wanted to say something, but Chen Linan simply grabbed his clothes, smiled, and walked out.

After walking outside, Li Shimin frowned and said, "Qilang, why are you pulling me? I haven't asked Uncle Guan what to do with the property yet."

Chen Linan rolled his eyes: "I say, Erlang, are you really stupid or just pretending to be stupid?"

"Do you think Uncle Guan didn't see what we wanted to ask just now?"

"But he didn't even mention it. Instead, he talked about rewarding the two of us for our contributions. Doesn't this mean that we can handle this matter ourselves?"

"Our brothers followed us to fight together, so naturally we should distribute the wealth to them."

"It's not ours anyway."

"Let's go."

Spring, the fourteenth year of Kaihuang.

More than 300 people were selected in this imperial examination, and the emperor was very happy.

The emperor was even more excited when he found another genius, who was the prince of Zhenguo and the king of An of the contemporary Chen family of Guandu.

When he heard that Chen Ruohan was a genius who won six first prizes in a row, he said in public: "Three first prizes are rare in the world, and six first prizes are unheard of. I was able to get Cheng Tao, just like King Wen of Zhou got Jiang Ziya, and later Qin Xiaogong got An Guojun and Shang Jun, just like the previous emperor Liu Bei got Zhuge Liang."

He immediately summoned the whole country and appointed Chen Ruohan as "Zhongshu Ling", and gave him the title of "Tai Shi" and the title of Zijin Guanglu Dafu.

After the news spread, no one found it strange.

After all, no matter how outstanding the Chen family members are, it is never too much.

As for becoming the chief as soon as he entered the officialdom?
There is nothing strange about this.

In the past, the descendants of the Chen family were prime ministers when they first came out of retirement. Now there is no prime minister, so what's wrong with being a general officer similar to the prime minister?
In the past, Chen was second only to the emperor, and now at least there are two people who are on equal footing with him.

Good thing, it’s a good thing.

The fourteenth year of Kaihuang, late autumn.

After the Sui army surrounded dozens of Goguryeo cities for more than a hundred days, these cities surrendered one after another.

Then, the army advanced towards the capital of Goguryeo almost unimpeded.

The Goguryeo court was shocked and hurriedly held a meeting to discuss how to stop the Sui army. Finally, they concluded that they should use their emperor as a "shield" to stop this invincible army.

In the same year, the King of Goguryeo wrote a letter, calling himself a son and a minister and Yang Jian the king and father, begging for peace.

Historical records record Yang Jian's reaction as.

"The Emperor is very happy"

(End of this chapter)