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

Chapter 384: Death of Zhang Jue (Part )

In the fifth year of Tiantai, Liu Cao's siege of Dayu had reached a white-hot stage.

It was somewhat beyond Zhang Jue's ability to deal with the two powerful forces of Liu Bei and Cao Cao alone. Fortunately, the "Sorrow of Aristocratic Families" broke out in the fifth year of Tiantai, which allowed Zhang Jue to delay some of Liu Bei and Cao's energy.

Most of the noble families in the world stand on the side of Langya, but some also stand on the side of the Han Dynasty in Chang'an.

After the Sorrow of the Aristocratic Families, most of the strength of these aristocratic families was used to encircle and suppress Zu Tianshi. Naturally, there was no extra energy left for Liu Bei and Cao Cao to encircle and kill Zhang Jue.

Zu Tianshi's massacre continues.

Although Yuan Ji and others learned from Chen Zexi how to survive, knowing is one thing and whether to do it is another.

Not everyone has the long-term vision to give up immediate interests, especially when the immediate interests are huge.

Where is the most profitable thing in the world recorded?

The most profitable things in the world are all written in legal books.

The noble families that have not suffered from the murderous hands of Zu Tianshi are naturally unwilling to give up their interests, and the noble families that have suffered from the murderous hands also want to breathe a sigh of relief.

"Since everyone is calling for the death of Zu Tianshi now, maybe he doesn't have the energy to target them anymore?"

Yes.

Almost everyone in the world is now calling for the death of Zu Tianshi.

Who are the most aristocratic people?

Is he a dandy boy?

of course not.

If a noble family is dominated by "dandy young men", then this family will gradually decline. The reason why noble families can become noble families is that they have mastered the "right to annotate scriptures", or in other words, the "scholars" among them make up the majority.

In other words, there are many "cultured people".

These people gained the right to speak, and began to "slander" Zu Tianshi, and spread Zu Tianshi's bad behavior everywhere, packaging Zu Tianshi's massacre of the "aristocratic families" as a massacre of "innocent people."

At this time, some literati and great scholars also stood up and said that Zu Tianshi was actually a bad person.

Because the massacre of the aristocratic families by Zu Tianshi actually interfered with their interests.

In order to protect their own interests, these so-called great scholars and powerful families stood together and began to weave a false lie for the ignorant people.

They slandered the ancestor Tianshi and called the "family tragedy" an "evil thing."

The Dayu Dynasty lasted for more than two hundred years from its unification to its demise, and during these two hundred years, people continued to slander the "Ancestor Heavenly Master", even though the founding emperor of Dayu, "Zhang Jue", had conferred the title of "Ancestor Heavenly Master" on the Ancestor Heavenly Master and listed him as the first of the Four Heavenly Masters of the Taiping Dao.

In the dynasties after Dayu, when the power of the aristocratic families slowly gained the upper hand, this voice became even louder.

The time when the reputation of "Ancestor Heavenly Master" was completely cleared was the time when the identity of this mysterious "Ancestor Heavenly Master" was exposed.

At that time all the "historians" collapsed.

It was also at that time that the slander against "Zu Tianshi" was gradually resisted. It was not until the publication of "China's Transformation: The Tragedy of Aristocratic Families", a book discussing China's transformation, that the reputation of "Zu Tianshi" was completely reversed, and "The Tragedy of Aristocratic Families" was officially regarded as a good thing.

In this era, due to the promotion of literati and scholars, people's views on the "Ancestor Heavenly Master" are still rather biased.

The fifth year of Tiantai, winter.

After a year-long massacre of those "aristocratic families", after the two Han emperors of Langya and Chang'an stated that "Ancestor Tianshi" was a traitor, Zhang Jue, the emperor of Dayu who was besieged, came forward.

He said that what "Zu Tianshi" did was exactly what he wanted to do.

He said that the reason for his uprising was that the people of the world had been oppressed for too long and the Han Dynasty had become corrupt, so he had to lead the people to seek a way of survival.

He said that perhaps the path he was looking for was wrong and that he was too gentle.

Zhang Jue said a lot, but what really shocked the world was that he offered sacrifices to God and listed "Zu Tianshi" among the "Four Heavenly Masters" of Taiping Dao.

He also said that as long as Zu Tianshi was willing to come to Dayu to serve as an official, he would be willing to welcome Zu Tianshi as the Prime Minister of Dayu.

This is what truly scares and terrifies people all over the world.

Some noble families who originally wanted to secretly defect to Dayu also gave up the idea of ​​supporting Zhang Jue. After all, their lives would definitely not be easy after Zu Tianshi became the prime minister of Dayu.

On the contrary, some originally neutral families began to slowly contact Dayu after Zhang Jiao expressed his "support" for Zu Tianshi.

For example, the Zhao family of Shangdang, and the Qin family of Guanzhong.

The two families have always remained neutral and are unwilling to get involved in the battle for the world.

And now, they are all willing to provide some subtle help to Dayu.

For example, they no longer prevented their family members from going to Dayu to serve as officials.

The actions of the Zhao and Qin families also made the other aristocratic families somewhat angry, but they had no way to deal with them.

Because no matter from what angle they start, they cannot influence the thoughts of Zhao and Qin.

From the perspective of justice?

Although the Qin and Zhao families never publicized it, everyone in the world knew that the ancestor who founded the Shangdang Zhao family was a descendant of Emperor Wulie of Qin, and the ancestor who founded the Guanzhong Qin family was the youngest son of Fusu, the son of the First Emperor and the Second Emperor. They are descendants of the Great Qin!
There is already hatred between them and the Liu family!

Therefore, it is basically impossible to oppress the Qin and Zhao families from the perspective of justice.

And from the perspective of strength?
The Qin and Zhao families have been passed down since the end of the Qin Dynasty. When the Qin Dynasty fell, no one knows whether there was any force left to protect their descendants.

Even if not, during these four hundred years, the power of the Qin and Zhao families had already developed to a certain extent. They were not as strong as the Chen family. After all, during the Han Dynasty, the Qin and Zhao families had never held positions around "two thousand stones", and had not even been county governors.

But even so, it is not something that other families can touch.

Therefore, people all over the world could only see that Dayu, which had been oppressed, attacked, and besieged by Liu and Cao and could not raise its head, quickly gained a firm foothold as if it had received help from gods overnight.

They were even able to launch some "counterattacks" against the Liu-Cao alliance while defending.

This is not a good thing for Cao Liu.

However, the Ancestral Master who caused the "Sorrow of Aristocratic Families" is still traveling around the world. Even if an aristocratic family has been "swept" once, if they continue to do evil, the Ancestral Master will still turn around and strike back.

The situation in the world has entered a white-hot stage.

The alliance of Liu and Cao will not withdraw their troops easily, the encirclement and suppression of Zu Tianshi by the aristocratic families will not disappear, and Zu Tianshi will still roam the world freely.

For a moment, the world reached a delicate balance.

The sixth year of Tiantai was 202 AD.

This year, the "Sun family" in Jiaozhou could no longer tolerate continuing to live in "Jiaozhou". They took advantage of the fact that Dayu was dealing with the forces of Liu Bei and Cao Cao and launched a war against Dayu.

At this point, the original balance was broken, and Dayu was attacked from all sides and surrounded by three forces. Emperor Zhang Jue of Dayu struggled to support this situation and ordered his general Zhao Yun to lead troops south to resist the attack of the Sun family in Jiaozhou. In order to further occupy the southern power, Cao Cao sent his general Cao Zhang to lead a large army to attack Jiaozhou.

For a while, Jiaozhou not only had to deal with Dayu's counterattack, but also had to face Cao Cao's attack, and began to feel overwhelmed.

But it was also in this year that Gongsun Zan of Youzhou went south.

Faced with Gongsun Zan's sudden march south, Liu Bei and Cao Cao were caught off guard and lost three cities to Gongsun Zan in a row. For a while, Liu Bei's forces became engaged in a two-front war, and Cao Cao, like Zhang Jue, was fighting on three fronts.

The sixth year of Tiantai passed in war, and the flames of war broke out again across the world.

In a corner where no one cared, or in other words, in a corner where the "aristocratic families" cared but the people of the world gradually didn't care, Master Zu Tianshi carried out a cruel purge of the aristocratic families.

Although this purge was cruel, it did not completely eliminate these old families. Instead, it dug out the "rotten flesh" from their bodies like a surgery.

It was at this time that some of the more "intelligent" families gradually reacted.

This ancestor master should not be the enemy of the family.

For example, the Yuan family, the Yang family, and the Lu family.

琅琊
Yuan Ji sighed and said inexplicably: "You two came to me, I think you have discovered the problem?"

Yang Xiu nodded and said without hiding anything: "After the ancestor Tianshi cleansed the Yang family, the Yang family's development is even better than before, and without the influence of those "rotten flesh", the Yang family even began to slowly recover its vitality."

It is impossible for a family that has been passed down for hundreds of years to be free of dirt.

But it is impossible for a family that has been passed down for hundreds of years to be entirely dirty.

The filth made it hard for them to breathe, like a piece of object blocking their throats, making them gradually feel uncomfortable and eventually die slowly.

Now that Zu Tianshi has removed the rotten flesh, they can breathe again.

Lu Yu just said: "What Zu Tianshi did reminded me of the Chen family back then."

The Chen family back then?
Everyone's mind came up with the record in history books of the bloodbath committed by an ancestor of the Chen family during the Qin Dynasty. They also thought of the occasional stabbings by the Chen family themselves during the past four hundred years.

"At the time, I just thought that Chen's actions were a little weird. Now that I think about it, the only way to keep clear-headed is to keep moving forward."

“Perhaps, this is why Chen’s family has surpassed us so much.”

Yang Xiu sighed: "Chen's vision is very long-term, but who among us can guarantee that we will not decline after experiencing vicissitudes of life?"

"The Chen family started to rise during the reign of Qin Xiaogong, and it has been more than 530 years until now! During this period, they have never experienced a low point. What about the Qin family and the Zhao family who can barely compare with them?"

"Over the past four hundred years, the Qin and Zhao families have fallen into fatal crises many times and once fell out of the ranks of aristocratic families, but they were able to slowly climb back up with the remaining glory of their ancestors."

"Do we have a royal ancestor?"

"No."

Yang Xiu said silently: "So, we can only continue to be an ordinary family. Even if we know that the long-term benefits are great, we can only focus on the present, otherwise we will not be able to get through the present."

Yuan Ji pulled up the corner of his mouth and smiled, then shook his head and sighed silently.

"Anyway, whatever you can do is good."

"Today there is a Grand Master, and tomorrow there may be some other Master."

“Ever since the Grand Master Tianshi raised his butcher knife and told the world that the aristocratic families only stood above everyone else by virtue of their knowledge, power, and wealth, the aristocratic families were no longer the high and mighty aristocratic families.”

"He told the world that the children of noble families would die if their heads were chopped off by a knife."

"The blood of the children of noble families is also warm."

He looked at the two of them and said indifferently, "Unless one day, ordinary people no longer have the power to threaten us."

"Only when that day comes can we continue to be high and mighty without restraint."

"Otherwise, we can only slowly change ourselves, hoping that the next 'Family Sorrow' will come later, much later, and will not involve us."

"That's all."

After Yuan Ji finished speaking, he lowered his head and said no more.

And what he said was indeed true.

Yang Xiu and Lu Yu sighed silently, and then nodded.

The fact that they can stand here also means that they have figured out some of the things, otherwise they would not have come.

They are just pity.

It's a pity that the days when I used to stand above everyone are gone.

In the seventh year of Tiantai, many heroes in the world continued to be caught in a continuous melee.

In Jiaozhou, the Sun family relied on the rivers to fight against Cao Cao's forces who were not good at water battles, while quietly looking for a retreat.

They set their sights on a more distant land, a land far away from the nine provinces of China.

So, after a brief discussion, Sun Ce decided to order his generals to lead soldiers to attack those distant barbarian small countries, while he himself gradually prepared to migrate his forces there.

The eighth year of Tiantai soon arrived.

This year, a small thing happened.

The Sun clan of Jiaozhou was defeated.

But they were not completely defeated.
The Sun family, led by Sun Ce, retreated to a place far away from Jiaozhou, and they established their own country in the place where the barbarians originally lived.

In the eighth year of Tiantai, the "Wu Kingdom" was established.

But because he is far away from the Central Plains, he is no longer even part of "China".

Of course, after Dayu was unified, Wu also changed two or three emperors, and soon expressed its willingness to become a vassal state of Dayu, and then Dayu established the "Southern Region Protectorate" here.

Time goes by slowly.

The ninth year of Tiantai arrived slowly but surely.

This year, Zhang Jue's health became worse, and even rumors began to spread in the court of Dayu.

Zhang Jue's health is now worrying, and Zhang Jue's eldest son, the Crown Prince "Zhang Cheng" of Dayu, is only nine years old.

A nine-year-old child.

Can you shoulder the responsibility of the precarious Dayu?
(End of this chapter)