Northern Dynasties

Chapter 1299: The White-haired Prime Minister

When Xiong Ansheng heard the Supreme's words, his eyes suddenly lit up, and he even opened his mouth to take a few deep breaths, and then he suppressed his excitement for a while, and then he bowed deeply and said: "I am deeply blessed and promoted to the court. I have dedicated my life to the country, and I have not yet finished repaying this kindness. I am not familiar with the rules and regulations of the imperial court, so how dare I rashly comment on the important matters of the selection!"

"The imperial dynasty uses classics to punish evil and promote good, to commend merit and to warn against crime. What the people want is what the government implements, what the scholars pursue, what the etiquette exists, what the way is, what the country uses. All things are based on people. Don't be ashamed of your old age. The etiquette is passed down from the three dynasties, and the scholars are recommended at the time, all of which are loyal to the imperial dynasty. The three ministers with white hair and the prime ministers with white hair are also the way of the imperial dynasty to respect scholars."

Although Li Tai was satisfied with Xiong Ansheng's cautious attitude, he hoped that the old man could be more relaxed and not have too many concerns. If you are asked to go for it, just go for it boldly. How many chances do you have to fight in your life?

The reason why he treated Xiong Ansheng so courteously was not only because he had been active in the previous public opinion storm, but also because he was a Confucian scholar in the opposition. The courteous treatment of Xiong Ansheng was also an attempt by Li Tai to improve the personnel system of the future Tang Dynasty.

Compared with the confluence of Guanlong in the Western Wei and Northern Zhou dynasties, the political structure of the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi dynasties was more colorful. Putting aside the disputes and conflicts between the nobles and the aristocratic families, the nobles and the nobles, and the aristocratic families, there was also a relatively powerful political force, that is, favor.

Favor is the extension of imperial power. It is a political phenomenon that is manifested in an unconventional form when the emperor's authority and desire cannot be released and satisfied in the normal political structure. Therefore, a major characteristic of favor is that it destroys the established structure and tramples on existing rules.

Evil and flattery will exist in any era, but when it becomes a phenomenon or even a political force, it means that under the existing political structure, the emperor's wishes cannot be upheld and satisfied for a long time, and must be realized through other means.

Favors were a constant throughout the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi dynasties, but the later the Northern Qi dynasty was, the more interference in politics it had. People like He Shikai and Lu Lingxuan were all prominent figures. Gao Zhan and Gao Wei were indeed too outrageous, but the political landscape of the Northern Qi dynasty was also too bizarre.

First, in order to avoid the lesson of his two elder brothers who failed to pass the throne to their sons, Gao Zhan passed the throne to his sons during his lifetime and became the emperor. This directly violated the original political rules. For example, when Gao Zhan died, his half-brother Gao Ji was in office and thought that it was my turn according to the order, but he was poisoned by the later emperor Gao Wei.

  This actually deprived the nobles of an opportunity to vote and speculate. The nobles are the ones who really control the army. If you don't follow the rules with them, what good will come of it?

In order to maintain his dignity, Gao Wei could only rely more on favors, but in fact, the power of favors came from him. What power could he use to check and balance the nobles? He just broke the rules in a rage, betting that the nobles would not dare to fight to the death.

But soon a perfect gunman appeared, that was Gao Wei's younger brother, Langya King Gao Yan, the so-called youngest powerful official in Northern Qi. But in fact, this naughty kid had everything arranged from birth to death, and he ended up with loneliness.

  Gao Yan was disgusted with He Shikai, Luo Dibo and others who were abusing their power, so he directly raised troops to capture and kill He Shikai, and even led his troops to block the palace gate, but did not dare to enter the palace because of the small number of soldiers. His cousin, Gao Yanzong, the son of Gao Cheng, was a sincere man. He directly said that Emperor Xiao Zhao only needed 80 people to kill Yang Yin, and now there are thousands of troops, so is that still considered a small number?

Facts have proved that there are really few. When Hulugu led the emperor Gao Wei to the palace gate, the soldiers around Gao Yan were frightened and scattered. Hulugu directly pulled Gao Yan to Gao Wei and said that he was still a child and would grow up.

This operation directly slapped the emperor and the so-called powerful officials in the face, telling them clearly who is the grandson and who is the grandfather. If this happened during the reign of Gao Yang or even Gao Zhan, Hulugu's family would have either fed the fish and turtles in Zhangshui, or buried He Liuhun's seed!

No matter what Hulugu was thinking and considering at the time, his arrogance and weakness were fully exposed in this one incident.

  His domineering nature is that he doesn't care about the emperor's majesty and the laws of the country. He thinks raising troops to riot and forcing the emperor to revolt is just a prank of a naughty child, and he can just beat him up. His weakness is that even though the situation has come to this point and the emperor is already a fish on the chopping board, he still dares not take another step, fantasizing that everything can still return to normal. He didn't learn the essence of the Qianming Change at all!

The politics of Northern Qi had actually been doomed at this point. It was difficult for the last emperor Gao Wei to complete the liquidation and punishment of this rebellion through conventional means. Such power should have belonged to the emperor, but due to the obstruction of nobles such as Hulugu and other political forces, the emperor's most basic demands were difficult to achieve.

Therefore, when the Northern Zhou invaded, while the nobles and generals were busy fighting the enemy, Emperor Gao Wei began to vigorously promote the favored forces. After the danger was over, he quickly launched a counterattack and liquidation. After that, the favored forces dominated, and both the Jinyang nobles and the Hebei clans rushed to join them.

In the political structure of the Later Three Kingdoms, no matter which regime it was, there were two important components within it, namely military meritorious officials and members of the aristocratic families, including the current Tang Dynasty court.

Generally speaking, military merit groups are responsible for expanding territory and conquering rebellious forces, while members of aristocratic families are responsible for creating laws and regulations and promulgating government orders. Moreover, both have very obvious identity characteristics, so it is very easy to form interest groups in politics.

Although Li Tai has always paid attention to the diversity of his civil and military personnel during his rise, and has not focused on just one group. So far, there has not been any complex political alliance in the court, but it does not mean that there is no hidden danger, and it is still naturally present, that is, the aristocratic group represented by the Five Surnames. What can make people powerful will become a restriction one day in the future, and the more you rely on it, the stronger this restriction will be. Just like the Northern Qi regime and the Jinyang nobles, there is also such a connection between Li Tai and the Five Surnames.

Although his rise was mainly due to his own hard work, his background and connections also played an irreplaceable role in the critical period of his career development. If his father was just an honest farmer named Old Man Li in Luoyang, then the possibility of a series of subsequent plots would basically be eliminated.

For Li Tai, the Guandong nobles were certainly not like the Jinyang nobles and the Northern Qi regime in terms of their direct influence on its rise and fall, survival, but if they were not effectively curbed, they would inevitably become a fundamental factor affecting the diversity of the Tang court in the near future.

Since Li Tai himself was born into a family of five surnames, many conventional means of attacking members of the family were difficult to use. Later generations used the so-called first sword on the shore, beheading the person you like first, but in his case, he had to behead his fathers, villagers, and relatives of five degrees of mourning first, which was even more outrageous than Zhu Rong.

The reason why the spearhead was pointed directly at the Zhaojun Li family was of course because the Zhaojun Li family itself had a way to die, and there was no direct kinship between the two Lis. But if the same thing was done to other big families, it would be a violation of the bottom line of human ethics.

The reason why Li Tai went to great lengths to engage in public opinion criticism was that he was mainly targeting the Hebei nobles. He wanted to label them as having original sin through public opinion, thereby reducing certain immunities they had in terms of human ethics and morality.

For example, if I want to punish a relative next year, I can say that the Hebei public opinion criticized you so much back then, I didn’t believe it, and I wanted to give you an important position, but you died here, you really deserved it! In other words, you are a bunch of noobs, and I have already given you favors, but you still can’t do a good job, so don’t blame me for handling it impartially.

By laying the groundwork for this kind of public opinion, he was able to avoid accusations of being cold and heartless, and was placed on a moral high ground, which gave him more room for maneuver than the double act of Gao Huan and his son.

Li Tai had another advantage over the rulers of Northern Qi, which was that he knew the answer clearly. That was, if he wanted to create a third political force besides military meritorious officials and aristocratic families, he did not need to vigorously support favoritism. It would be more effective and have a longer-term impact to establish a series of selection systems such as the imperial examination.

Although the imperial examination system originated in the Sui Dynasty and took shape in the Tang Dynasty, it never reached a prosperous state during the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Instead, it was once used by aristocratic families to revive and become a new way for them to monopolize political resources. It was not until the chaotic Five Dynasties that the aristocratic families suffered structural destruction and the Northern Song Dynasty regime, which was rebuilt in the ruins, was revived.

From this we can see that the imperial examination system as a system is certainly advanced, but it also manifests different forms in different eras.

Li Tai himself came from an aristocratic family of the Five Surnames, so the regime he founded was in even greater need of a complete selection system, and it had to do its utmost to prevent the system from being usurped during its implementation.

  Therefore, he needed both the support of the opposition masters with lofty academic achievements and a group of officials from humble backgrounds to supervise and implement the operation of the imperial examination system. Otherwise, the referees and referees were all their people, so what could they use to fight them?

Xiong Ansheng is a great scholar among the opposition parties. He has no family background, but he has a profound influence in academia and has thousands of disciples. He seems to be a tailor-made candidate for this purpose.

Especially in the early stages of the creation and development of the imperial examination system, the existence of Xiong Ansheng, a Confucian scholar, could to a great extent prevent all aspects of the imperial examination system from being intentionally infiltrated and hijacked by the aristocratic families. In particular, he was an old fighter who had promised to kill treacherous officials of the Northern Qi Dynasty. Therefore, Li Tai's expectations for him were far greater than he had imagined.

  The so-called white-haired three ministers and white-haired prime ministers are not pure pie in the sky. If this old man can seize his historical opportunity and make appropriate cooperation, Li Tai will certainly not be stingy in rewarding him with a high position. The old pig farmer Gongsun Hong can be made a marquis and appointed as a prime minister, so what is the difference between Xiong Ansheng, a Confucian master in the north?

After Xiong Ansheng heard these words of praise, his face flushed with excitement. He bowed deeply to the ground and remained silent for a long time. Even after a long while, he just kept muttering: "I am so lucky... I will die for you, Your Majesty!"

Wish you all a happy Mid-Autumn Festival!!!