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

Chapter 458 North-South Connection

The first year of Daye
The outcome of the battle for the throne had been decided. After the new emperor ascended the throne, he lavishly rewarded his meritorious officials. In the process, he did not forget the two who were far away in Liaozhou and Youzhou.

Yang Guang was just a little crazy, but he was not a fool.

The Sui Dynasty needed the Chen family, or at least someone from the Chen family serving as an official in the court. Only in this way could the stability of the Sui Dynasty be guaranteed and the so-called "orthodoxy" be guaranteed, even if he did not want this to happen.

Therefore, among the meritorious officials who were rewarded, "Li Shimin" and "Chen Lin'an" were the top ones.

The following is the reward list.

Li Shimin was given the title of General of Tiance, ranked among the first-rank generals, and given the title of Duke of Tiance, which was allowed to be hereditary. He was given the title of Jiedushi of the Five Counties of Liaozhou, concurrently the Envoy of the Five Counties, concurrently the Grand Commander of Liaozhou, concurrently the Governor of Liaozhou and the Governor of Liaozhou, who was in charge of all affairs of Liaozhou. He was given the title of Shangzhuguo, and ranked among the Dukes of Chaotang. He was given the title of Jun Sima.

As for the titles conferred upon Li Shimin, apart from changing the title of Marquis of Tiance to Duke of Tiance, there was nothing too extraordinary about the rest.

And his conferring of a higher title on Li Shimin was actually a continuation of Yang Jian's policy towards Li Shimin back then - that is, separating him from the Li family, making the Li family and Li Shimin two independent individuals.

Even this time, what Yang Guang did was even more exaggerated.

Let’s take a look at Li’s current status and honors.

What is the current position of Li Yuan, the head of the Li family?
Prefect of Taiyuan County, Shangzhuguo, and Duke of Tang.

And what about Li Shimin?
Jiedushi of the five counties of Liaozhou, Envoy of Demotion, Grand Commander, Governor of Liaozhou, Military Sima, Shangzhuguo, and Duke of Tiance.

It really is true that the son is much better than the father.

However, the title bestowed upon Chen Linan was a little too much.

Chen Lin'an was promoted to General Lin'an, ranking among the first-rank generals, and was given the title of Duke of Lin'an, and was allowed to inherit the title without change; Chen Lin'an was promoted to the governor of the five counties of Youzhou, the governor of the three northern provinces, and the governor of Youzhou, and was ordered to handle all military and political affairs of Youzhou, and could execute first and report later in case of any incident.

Chen Lin'an was conferred the title of "Grand Marshal", and concurrently appointed as the Right Prime Minister of the Secretariat, and was given the honorary title of "Purple Gold Guanglu Doctor".

First of all, all the extraordinary titles bestowed upon the emperor before were not cancelled, and then two truly powerful official positions were conferred - the Grand Marshal and the Left Pushe of the Secretariat.

It should be noted that during the reign of Emperor Kaihuang, that is, in the 13th year of Kaihuang, the position of Shangshu Tailing had become a "nominal position" and was basically no longer set up.

In other words, the Shangshu Tai was basically ruled by the two Pushes on the left and right - among them, the right one was the most respected. The Shangshu Tai You Pushe was basically equivalent to the former Shangshu Tai Ling.

There is no prime minister in the current dynasty, and the clerks in the prime minister's office have also been abolished. So the only positions equivalent to the prime minister in the entire dynasty are Shangshu Tai You Pushe, Zhongshu Ling, and Menxia Ling.

Apart from these two, the most shocking thing was the promotion of two other people.

Or in other words, it is a special honor for one of these two people.

He conferred the title of Zijin Guanglu Dafu on "Zhang Anshi" and appointed Zhang Anshi as "Zuo Sheren of the Secretariat"; he declared Taiping Dao to be the orthodox Taoism, and granted Longhu Mountain to the Zhang family, allowing them to live there for generations and making it their private property; he conferred the title of "Tianshi" on the current head of the Zhang family, allowing him to inherit the title for generations, and respected him as the supreme orthodox leader of Taoism among the mortals.

He conferred the title of Zijin Guanglu Dafu on Pei Ju, appointed him as "You Shizhong of Menxia Province", and appointed the head of the Pei family as "Governor of Hedong County".

No one had any objection to Pei Ju's promotion. After all, this counselor under the King of Jin had been diligently helping the King of Jin until he reached his current position. So it was normal for him to enjoy the merit of following the King and ascend to this high and powerful position.

But why were Zhang and Zhang Anshi so powerful?
Some people were secretly puzzled, but they soon got an explanation.

There is no fool who can reach this position - this is something everyone must know.

They quickly linked together the two seemingly unrelated events of "the crown prince's rebellion and forcing the emperor to abdicate" and Zhang Anshi's favor from the new emperor, and thus discovered the truth of the matter.

Zhang Anshi stabbed the prince in the back.

He instigated the Crown Prince to rebel and force the emperor to abdicate, and told the news to Prince Jin, which enabled Prince Jin to make preparations early, set up a large net to entrap him, and finally removed the only obstacle on his way forward.

Tang Guogong Mansion
Li Jiancheng's mentality had begun to distort. His eyes were filled with anger, and he looked like he had been fished out of the Flaming Mountain. He kept walking back and forth, and finally even came up with a new "idea" in his mind.

Isn't the position of Tian Ce Gong hereditary?
But Li Shimin doesn't have any children yet.

A smile flashed across his lips, a cruel and perverted smile.

What if a Duke dies without children?
In order to prevent this meritorious official from having no descendants in the end, a child must be adopted from his brothers or clansmen. After being adopted, this child will have no relationship with the original father and will be the son of this meritorious official.

Then, this "son" can naturally inherit the "hereditary" title of Duke.

Among Li Shimin’s brothers, which one has a son?
Only one had a son.

That was Li Jiancheng.

As for the clan?

Are the children of the clan more closely related to him as the eldest brother?

Li Jiancheng seemed to have seen a scene in the future, where his son stole the title of Duke that Li Shimin had fought so hard for, and his eldest son could inherit the position of Duke of Tang.

Everything Li Shimin has is for his benefit!

When this thought emerged in his mind, it seemed that nothing else could enter his mind and interfere with his actions.

He straightened his clothes.

He decided to repair the relationship between himself, the Duke of Tang's Mansion and Li Shimin starting from today, otherwise it would be too late to mention the adoption in the future.

Royal Garden

The three of them sat in the imperial garden one after another, their expressions calm.

Yang Guang looked cheerful and carefree, while Li Shimin was somewhat helpless and respectful. As for Chen Linan? Chen Linan was busy eating the food prepared by the imperial kitchen.

His favorite thing in life is eating.

You can compromise on anything except food.

Although he brought Chen's chef with him after arriving in Youzhou, the food was not as exquisite as that in the imperial kitchen. Chen didn't care much about these things, and it was impossible for her to hire a few chefs better than those in the imperial kitchen just for Chen Linan.

Yang Guang didn't mind that Chen Lin'an was still eating. He just looked at Li Shimin, sighed and continued, "Let the past go. Now that I have achieved my goal, I will naturally not do those things again."

Li Shimin knew what “those things” he was talking about, but did he still have room to resist or oppose at this time?

I could only nod and say, "Whatever."

He raised his glass and sighed, "I hope Your Majesty can treat the people well and stop killing so many people."

"The people are tired and exhausted, let them live a good life in the new dynasty."

Yang Guang nodded without comment: "I will."

As they talked, the three of them started discussing the current "North-South" gap, and there was a hint of anger in Yang Guang's voice.

"Ever since Emperor Muzong handed over Lingnan to the Ye clan, the Ye clan plundered a large portion of Lingnan's wealth, but the small portion that remained also nourished Lingnan. In addition, they opened up the sea for foreign trade. Now in the Sui Dynasty, the wealth in the remote southern areas is actually greater than that in Kyoto."

"Only Guandu City has an economic situation that surpasses that of Lingnan and Guangdong." "As wealth gradually accumulates, people's ambitions will begin to gather - my black guards have received news that the south is somewhat unstable."

"Those Jiangnan families seem to want to separate the north and the south."

"This is something I absolutely cannot and must not allow."

"Erlang, Qilang, do you have any good solutions to this problem?"

Chen Linan buried his head in his food and did not raise his head for a moment. Instead, Li Shimin frowned and thought: "If we want to solve this problem, we can only strengthen the communication between the north and the south, or open up the traffic between the north and the south, so that the journey from the north to the south will be smoother."

"And in this case, send officials to clean up the officialdom in the south."

Li Shimin sighed as he spoke. He seemed to have guessed what Yang Guang wanted to do, so he looked at Yang Guang and said, "Your Majesty, opening up north-south transportation is a huge project, and this matter cannot be rushed."

"But we can prepare in advance for cleaning up the southern officialdom."

Yang Guang frowned slightly, obviously dissatisfied with Li Shimin's words "let it go for now, there's no rush". He looked at Chen Linan and asked, "Where's Qilang? What did Qilang say?"

Chen Linan wiped his mouth and said with a smile: "My opinion is the same as Erlang's. Right now, the people are developing. If we mobilize a large number of people at this time, it may endanger the spring plowing and autumn harvest."

"Our Chinese land is based on farming. If farming is endangered, I'm afraid it will be very dangerous."

Yang Guang's expression became even gloomier but he finally sighed.

"Well, let's put this matter aside for now, but we must not put aside the matter of cleaning up the officialdom in the south. The officialdom in the south has become so filthy that I cannot stand it any more."

Li Shimin and Chen Lin'an looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders: "Your Majesty, there is nothing we can do about this."

"You know, it's fine for the two of us to fight, but it's also fine for the two of us to deal with court battles and official affairs."

Yang Guang was almost amused by the synchronized actions of the two men. He could only helplessly hold his forehead and sigh, saying: "Alright, alright, how dare I let you two do these things?"

"The situation in Youzhou and Liaozhou is still very critical. Zhong Changsun has a large number of troops and is eyeing Liaodong Branch County covetously. I can't let you two come back."

He sighed again: "After sitting in this position, I suddenly realized how difficult it was for my father to maintain this country."

Chen Linan was curious and asked, "Who is your majesty going to send?"

Who to go?
Yang Guang smiled slightly.

"Hedong Pei Ju."

Outside the palace, on the carriage

Chen Linan and Li Shimin sat together, both of them looked very peaceful.

"You mean, Senior Brother called you home for dinner, and said it was your eldest brother who suggested it, and wanted to ease the relationship with you?"

Li Shimin's expression was as strange as Chen Linan's. He also said curiously, "Father said so."

"But I doubt Big Brother's motives. I always feel like something is wrong."

wrong?

Chen Linan touched his chin: "What's wrong?"

"You are now a Duke, and you have no competition with Li Jiancheng. Your title is also hereditary, and the position of Duke Tiance is obviously better than that of Duke Tang, right?"

"Still a favorite in His Majesty's eyes."

"As for the Li family, Li Jiancheng doesn't have a position of real power yet, so I think it's normal for him to want to win you over."

Li Shimin sighed and said, "You don't know my elder brother. I always feel that this matter is not so ordinary."

"But it's okay. After this banquet, I will go back to Liaozhou."

"No matter how many conspiracies and intrigues there are, they can't hurt me."

Chen Linan sighed: "I see you are newlyweds, you must be missing your Guanyin maid, right?"

Li Shimin chuckled, a little embarrassed, "That's true."

He looked towards the distant Liaozhou: "Kyoto is not my home."

The first year of Daye
Emperor Daye sent Pei Ju to the officialdom of Jiangnan, intending to eliminate the malpractices in the officialdom of Jiangnan and thus strengthen his rule.

But when Pei Ju arrived at the officialdom, he found that he could not find out anything. It seemed that a unique "small officialdom" had been formed here, isolated from the officialdom of the Sui Dynasty.

They became a "solid block".

The clan consciousness here is so strong that it has even reached the point where people are willing to fight against the imperial court.

After half a year of investigation, Pei Ju realized the danger and returned to Kyoto early.

The second year of Daye
imperial study room

After listening to Pei Ju's report, Yang Guang could no longer conceal the anger in his eyes. He smashed everything on the table to the ground, and then gritted his teeth and said, "Great, great, a good officialdom in Jiangnan, a good clan concept!"

He raised his head suddenly and covered his forehead subconsciously.

At this moment, the veins on his forehead were throbbing, and the pain that jumped out from the depths of his mind was gradually invading his sanity.

"Pei Ju!"

"Let the Secretariat draft an edict!"

"I will mobilize a million civilians to build the Grand Canal!"

"Go dig it all the way from Kyoto to Jiangnan for me!"

"I want to let those people know who owns this world!"

Pei Ju supported Yang Guang with a slight smile on his face.

He responded softly, "Yes."

Somewhere in Kyoto
A big hand slowly extinguished a candle on the table, and then let out a long sigh.

Tang Guogong Mansion
Li Shimin looked at his father in front of him with a mixture of surprise, confusion and anger on his face.

"what did you say?"