Taiping Inn

Since ancient times, there have been three main channels for usurping power, namely: relatives of the emperor, the head of civil and military officials, and eunuchs.

The Wei Dynasty, because of the lessons learned from past dynasties, completely blocked these three channels.

The first is relatives of the emperor and the emperor. According to the laws of the Wei Dynasty, the emperor, the prince, and the prince can only marry common women, not noble women. The father-in-law is a marquis without foundation and cannot serve in the court, so the way for relatives of the emperor to usurp power is blocked. The royal family, the Wei Dynasty is actually a fiefdom without construction. The prince has no real power over the fiefdom, and still has to use the three-official office to govern, and there are only a few thousand guards, so it is basically impossible to rebel. The current King of Jin is in power, which is only due to the times, and there is also the Queen Mother above him. Strictly speaking, the Queen Mother is the monarch and the King of Jin is the minister.

The second is the head of the civil and military officials. In all dynasties, the prime minister and the general have the right to open a government to govern, which is equivalent to a small court. The Wei court abolished the prime minister, leaving the civil officials leaderless. The cabinet was only of the fifth rank at first, and it was not until the six ministers began to join the cabinet that the cabinet had real power. Although the chief minister of the cabinet had the title of prime minister, he had no real power. Not to mention those prime ministers with no real power, even Zhang Suqing, who was truly in power, relied on the emperor's support to control the six ministries. After the emperor's death, Zhang Suqing was quickly liquidated by the empress dowager who represented the new emperor, and the cabinet declined. As for military officers, the chief military officer, the Grand Commander, was also abolished. The Grand Commander's Office was split into the Five Military Commanders' Offices, and the local government implemented the system of big and small prime ministers. Since then, no military general has been able to truly hold power. Even Qin Xiang, who recovered Liangzhou that year, only had about one-third of the country's military power, so civil and military officials were not a threat.

Finally, there are the eunuchs. The eunuch system of the Wei Dynasty is different from that of the previous dynasty. Eunuchs are not allowed to hold official positions in the outer court. Apart from the thousands of soldiers in the Imperial Horse Administration, they do not have military power. Since they have no military power, they naturally cannot shake the imperial power.

Because of this, the imperial power of the Wei Dynasty is highly concentrated. Any force must be restricted by and dependent on the imperial power. If you want to oppose the emperor, you must face the counterattack of several other forces. Therefore, the emperor does not have to be a top master or a person with a deep mind. Even if he is just a mediocre person with no power, as long as he sits on the throne of the emperor, he can hold power and decide life and death with a single word.

Under such circumstances, what can really shake the foundation of imperial power is not from within, but from outside, that is, the Golden Horde, which is located in the north of the empire. It is precisely because of the Golden Horde's several southward invasions and the successive years of famine that the Northwest Zhou Dynasty took advantage of the opportunity to secede Shuzhou, Liangzhou, Qinzhou and other places. The Qingyang Sect took advantage of the chaos and forced the Wei court to delegate power to governors in various places in order to quell the rebellion. It also allowed the local gentry and wealthy families to participate in local politics by supporting the frontier officials, and even influence the local situation. This is why there is today's chaos.

Shuangqing Prefecture is just a microcosm of this chaos. Here, the government is hollowed out and local forces are all-powerful. The Gongsun family and the Ximen family here are like the Qin family in Liaodong, the Li family in Donghai, and the Qian family in Jinling Prefecture. There are differences in power, but there is no difference in essence.

It's funny to say that Li Xuandu and Qin Su both come from local aristocratic families, and they are the top aristocratic families. If the Qin family and the Li family join forces, they can almost occupy half of Jiangbei. Although they want to do something for the world today, they don't know how they will be evaluated in the history books of the future. Will they be classified as traitors?

Zhong Wu once said to Luo Qingqing: "You can't just look at the road in front of you and ignore the body behind you." But sometimes, you can only walk with your head down. Maybe one day, when you raise your head suddenly, you have walked out of the muddy swamp and are down to earth.

Life is short, and the grass and trees are only a fall. What the result is is more due to the times. You can only do your best and leave it to fate. Just like the matter of Baidi City this time, how could the geomancer not know that Tang Zhou would most likely turn to Tan Taiyun? Just do your best. You can't do nothing and watch Tan Taiyun and Tang Zhou join forces.

However, even with Tang Zhou's support, Tan Taiyun may not be able to defeat the Earth Master. At most, it will be a situation where both sides suffer losses. Unless the Great Heavenly Master is willing to pull most of the righteous to support Tan Taiyun, the Earth Master can be destroyed in one fell swoop. But in this case, the evil way, which has been seriously injured, will no longer have the energy to compete with the righteous, and I am afraid Tan Taiyun will not be willing to do so.

The various conflicts of interest and open and secret struggles here are not something that Li Xuan can intervene in now. Now he is just a chess piece on the chessboard, far from being a chess player. Li Xuan knew this very well, so after the matter in Baidi City came to a temporary end, Li Xuan did not think about going to Xijing to meet Zhang Luanshan and continue to fight against the Earth Master's faction. Instead, he planned to withdraw first, sort out the context, and then start to arrange his own secret alliance, in order to get off the chessboard as soon as possible, because if he wants to realize his long-cherished wish, he must be a chess player.

But now Li Feiyan has not returned yet. In the absence of Li Feiyan and Li Rushi, many of Li Xuandu's ideas are not easy to put into practice. He has sent a letter to Li Feiyan, asking her and Li Rushi to come directly to Shuangqing Mansion to meet up. Before that, it is a rare period of leisure time.

According to Li Xuandu's original intention, he would take advantage of this time to practice and consolidate the "Taishang Dan Jing" and "Xuanyin Zhenjing", but when he saw Qin Su's pouting mouth, he wisely changed his mind. After all, this is his first time in Shuangqing Mansion, so it would be good to walk around.

So the two of them left the inn together and went to the bustling downtown. Qin Su wanted to use the "Baihua Lingmian" to change her appearance, but was stopped by Li Xuandu. According to Li Xuandu, we have not done anything wrong. We should be upright and honest. Why should we hide our heads and show our tails all day long? Qin Su thought this was the truth, so he did not deliberately change his appearance, but still wore a veil hat, which was the one Li Xuandu gave him at the beginning.

Because this place is not a good place, Li Xuandu simply wore the "Bai Gu Liuguang" around his waist. A sword of extraordinary appearance did scare away many villains, but there were also many self-important desperadoes who thought that Li Xuandu and his sword were just a showpiece and were eager to try.

Li Xuandu turned a blind eye to such people. If someone dared to provoke him, he would be prepared to leave his life. From the second year of Tianbao to the sixth year of Tianbao, Li Xuandu cultivated his character for four years, so when he just returned to the arena, he was kind to others, held back, and would not kill if he could. However, from the sixth year of Tianbao to the seventh year of Tianbao, Li Xuandu spent almost a year in constant fighting with others. Coupled with the subtle influence of the "Thirteen Swords of Taiyin", Li Xuandu's hostility has a tendency to rise again. As the saying goes, it is easy to change the country but difficult to change one's nature. At this time, Li Xuandu is not so easy to talk to.

After walking for a while, he met a candied haws seller. Li Xuandu bought two strings and handed one to Qin Su. Qin Su took it with some embarrassment, and whispered: "You are so old, and you still eat this."

Li Xuandu ate a hawthorn and said indifferently: "So what? In this world, the same thing, different people do it, and there are two endings. For example, eating steamed bread, poor people eat this and are poor, while rich people eat this and eat coarse grains to nourish their stomachs. In the same way, it is not decent for ordinary adults to eat children's toys, but if it is Miss Qin, it is a pure heart, different from ordinary people."

"Slippery tongue, like to teach others, a bunch of crooked logic." Although saying so, Qin Su still lifted the veil of the veil and took a bite of hawthorn.

Li Xuandu spit out a hawthorn seed, comparable to a locust stone, hit a man's acupoints, making him unable to move.

Then the two walked past the man without looking at him.

Just now, the man wanted to find bad luck with the two, and just as he was about to block the way, he was hit by a hawthorn seed in the acupoints by Li Xuandu. The other men who wanted to join the fight hesitated. If Li Xuandu had pressed the acupuncture points of this man, it would not be a big deal. After all, this man brought his female relatives with him. They were outnumbered and powerful. As long as they caught the woman, they would not be afraid that this boy would not surrender. But just a hawthorn seed could hit the acupuncture points. This level of cultivation was very scary. Although it was not enough to run rampant in the city, it was not something that these people could provoke.