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

Chapter 434: Coup d’état (Part )

Chen Feng's slightly humorous teasing instantly relaxed the atmosphere at the scene. The other Chen family members even looked at Chen Ling with a smile: "Yes, it is rare to find someone who can make Zixu see that he is not a good person."

"Yes, yes, then he must not be a good person."

"If Zixu says someone is a good person, then you might still have doubts, but if Zixu says someone is a bad person, then it can only be said that this bad person is too obvious."

"I can no longer hide the evil in my bones."

Chen Zhan, who was thinking, was also amused by Chen Feng's humor. He looked at Chen Ling, Chen Feng and many other Chen family members and said helplessly, "What you said makes sense. If Zixu can see it, how can I not see it?"

After a moment of silence, he said softly, "Wait a little longer."

"We have to be patient, don't we?"

Chen Zhan stood there, his voice full of determination and solemnity: "After we return to Guandu City, it is not that we will do nothing. On the contrary, after we return to Guandu City, we can do better for the people."

He looked around and said, "At the end of the Qin Dynasty, the Chen family's children were scattered all over the country, doing what they had to do and what they could do, and it is naturally the same now."

"Dayu's world may soon fall into chaos, and the next dynasty may not be the best choice."

"In this case, the Chen family can be dispersed throughout the world as they did in the past."

"Can the people only control the general direction in the court?"

Chen Zhan opened his arms and said, "Go to the local areas, to the prefectures, or even the counties and towns, to see how the people live. You can govern a place, save people from disasters or diseases, or use your status as a descendant of the Chen family to help those who cannot see the light see the way forward."

"The Chen family will not surrender, and the Chen family will not fall."

He stood there, looking at the crowd: "There are many sufferings in the world."

“Everything will continue.”

The expressions of the other Chen family members all became serious. The looks in their eyes were filled with determination, and they used tiny voices to shout in a way that shook the world.

In the eleventh year of the Wansui reign, Chen Zhan, the prime minister, the minister of the Central Secretariat, and the head of the Chen family, resigned from his post, but the emperor did not allow it.

Zhan declined again.

The emperor could not keep him, so he conferred him with honors such as "Grand Tutor" and "Purple Gold Guanglu Doctor". Later, almost all of Chen's descendants resigned from their official positions in the court. Some of them accepted the court's appointment and went to frontier areas such as Bingzhou, Liangzhou, Youzhou, and Jiaozhou. Others accepted some honorary titles such as "Mountain and River Messenger" and traveled around the world.

At the same time that Chen Zhan and other members of the Chen family resigned from their posts, some minor turmoil occurred in the imperial court. Everyone saw that a great era was about to reveal itself, and everyone was waiting excitedly.

These people stand high above everyone else, and they never care about what this "great era" will bring to the common people at the bottom. They just know that they may be able to use this opportunity to help the next emperor ascend to his position, and thus gain the "merit of following the dragon."

They are like greedy gluttons, with their mouths wide open, ready to swallow everything at any time.

The world has become their dinner plate.

Yang Mansion
When the Chen family's descendants withdrew from the court one after another, if there was anyone who was the most excited, it must be Dugu Xin and his son-in-law Yang Jian.

Yang Jian could hardly conceal his excitement in the yard, but Dugu Jialuo, who was standing next to him, was not so "excited and happy". She was thinking about the questions that Chen Zhan had asked before and the answers given by Yang Jian.

In Chen Zhan's opinion, an unsteady answer was enough to prove that Yang Jian did not want to do this, or to prove that Yang Jian himself actually knew that he was incapable - but in Dugu Jialuo's opinion, this was Yang Jian's final "firm answer".

That "Zhuangtou" was Yang Jian's greatest helper.

It was her father Dugu Xin, or even the entire Dugu family including her.

Yang Jian's final answer was tantamount to saying that the Dugu family would be dealt with in the end.

But looking at her excited father and equally happy husband, Dugu Jialuo was entangled and hesitant for a moment. She didn't know what choice she should make.

Choose your own husband?
After all, a woman must obey her husband, and her future glory will depend on her husband and son.

Can.
Dugu Jialuo also clearly understood that the reason why Yang Jian respected her so much now and even promised that she would be the queen in the future was also because Yang Jian needed Dugu.

What if Dugu was no longer Yang Jian's helper, but instead became his biggest threat?

Without the Dugu family, can I still be Dugu Jialuo?
Maybe it can only be "Queen".

She closed her eyes and made a choice in her heart.

Perhaps this choice should be the right one.

Yang Jian, who was standing by, also saw the change in Dugu Jialuo's expression. He didn't think much about it, but just looked at Dugu Xin and said, "Taishan, is my little sister okay?"

Yang Jian's expression was a little worried as he had heard the news of the death of the husband of Dugu Xin's youngest daughter, Dugu Jialuo, and his sister Dugu Quening.

Dugu Xin didn't care at all: "Nothing, just my husband died."

He sighed, "But your little nephew is particularly hard to bear. After a while, when you and I take over the government affairs, let him inherit his father's title."

Yang Jian nodded.

In his view, Li Yuan was not an "enemy" but a natural ally. His wife's sister was Li Yuan's mother, and the Longxi Li family was also a powerful force.

Its power in the Longxi area is second only to the Qin family in Guanzhong.

In other words, on the surface, the power of the Longxi Li family even surpassed that of the Guanzhong Qin family. After all, the ancestors of the Qin family were descendants of the previous dynasty "Qin" which existed for who knows how many years ago, and such families that have produced emperors generally do not dare to show up at such times.

As soon as they show up, they will be targeted by the other families.

After all, who doesn’t have some grudges among their ancestors?

For example, if during such a turbulent time, the Qin clan in Guanzhong rose up in rebellion and said they wanted to restore the Great Qin, then the next moment the ones who would launch a desperate attack on the Qin clan and must suppress them would definitely be the Three Lius - that is, the Liu clan of the Han Dynasty.

Since the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, when Dayu was established, the Liu family has been divided into three branches. These three branches all firmly believe that they are the orthodox ones - in fact, they even sought people from the Chen family to prove that they are the orthodox ones.

The end result is that they are all orthodox.

Just like the Guanzhong Qin family and the Shangdang Zhao family, their ancestors were all the most famous first emperor of the Qin Dynasty. If the Liu family wanted to rise up, the Qin family and the Cao family would definitely suppress them desperately - after all, no one was sure whether the Liu family would retaliate against the Cao family if they became emperor again.

Similarly, if the Cao family wants to rise up in rebellion, the Qin and Liu families will not agree to it either - the reason is very simple. Our ancestors were so glorious in the past, and we can't recreate their glory, so why should you?
Looking at the sympathy on Yang Jian's face and the "calculation" in his eyes, a smile slowly appeared in Dugu Xin's eyes.

He was happy to see this happen - no matter what, in the end, all these "powers" needed him, the head of the "Dugu family", to serve as a bridge, right?

After Yang Jian ascended the throne, could he deny his own achievements?

joke.

The Dugu family is so big, and it has more than just a few married women.

"Taishan, when do we start?"

Yang Jian looked at Dugu Xin and asked this question. After hesitating for a while, Dugu Xin finally shook his head slightly: "Wait a little longer, now is not a suitable time."

He whispered, "When your majesty can no longer bear it, it will be time for you and me to take action."

"You have to know that what we launched was definitely not a coup d'état - instead, we wanted the young emperor to realize that he is powerless and to smoothly hand over power to us, and finally pass the throne to you."

Dugu Xin did not want to be an emperor - because he knew very well that there was no such thing as a thousand-year-old dynasty. The Zhou Dynasty lasted only eight hundred years, the Han Dynasty lasted more than four hundred years, and the Dayu Dynasty lasted only more than two hundred years.

And what about Chen?

The Chen family has been around for more than 800 years! Even longer than the Zhou Dynasty, which was the longest-lived dynasty.

There is no thousand-year-old dynasty, but there is a thousand-year-old family!
Even though Zhou, Qin, Han and Dayu have slowly disappeared with the passage of time, the Chen family still stands tall in this long river without any change.

This is the "Millennium Family".

Yang Jian exhaled slowly, and then let go of all the worries in his heart.

He needs to be patient and wait.

In the eleventh year of Wansui, it was the autumn and winter.

The emperor of the time promoted several unknown officials to important positions in the court. However, these people's abilities were not enough to convince the people, but the court was still operating slowly.

In the spring of the twelfth year of Wansui's reign, the emperor decided to hold an imperial examination.

The so-called Enke means that this is a "favor" specially opened by the emperor, and he hopes that knowledgeable people from all over the world will actively participate.

The number of places and candidates for this special examination was expanded, and the assessment was still based on a part of the Jianwu Ceremony content decided by the former Prime Minister Chen Zhi - although it was a bit outdated, some government affairs were always new.

But the public doesn't seem to appreciate it.

Because while the emperor was opening the special examination, he also specially opened another examination subject.

Today's examination subjects include the Huang-Lao subject, the Guozi subject, the Lingren subject, and the Jianwu subject. In addition to these four subjects, the emperor has also opened a "Craftsman and Buddhist subject."

If it was just the "craftsman department", people would not be so opposed. After all, the status of craftsmen in the Dayu Dynasty was not low, and it would be more appropriate to call them "science and technology" or "technique".

These craftsmen created many advanced tools, which greatly helped Dayu's development in science and technology. At least the students who participated in the Jianwu Department knew very well where those useful farm tools in their homes came from.

However, the subject of Buddhism obviously touched the sore spot of these students.

At first, the students thought that this was just another of the emperor's "interests", and they did not want to have a separate subject examination for Buddhism, which would take up other places, so they combined the two subjects of craftsmanship and Buddhism together.

But when the results came out, everyone was shocked.

Here we need to first talk about the allocation of quotas for the imperial examinations during the Wansui Dynasty.

The 360 ​​places are still set according to the precedent of that year, among which the Huang-Lao, Guozi and Lingren subjects each occupy 90 places, and the remaining 90 places are equally divided between Jianwu and Jiangren Buddhism subjects.

This time, the Jianwu Department was allocated thirty places.

There are only thirty places!
This made the students extremely angry. It turned out that this so-called special examination was not for selecting talents for the country, but for that foolish and incompetent emperor to select actors and Taoist priests to seek immortality?
This made them more angry than not opening the Enke, because it was a naked "insult" to them.

What made them even more angry was yet to come.

There are sixty places in the Buddhist Artisan Course, but among the sixty people selected this time, there are only thirteen craftsmen, while the group of unlearned, fat-headed and big-eared monks have as many as forty-seven places!

Among the thirteen craftsmen, ten of them are masons and sculptors, and some specialize in carving Buddha statues!
This means that Buddhism occupies approximately fifty-seven places!
Almost in an instant, the anger of all the people was completely ignited, with flames of anger in their eyes. Their patience with the Dayu royal family over the years had reached its peak and then broke out at this moment!
The worst thing is that this time, it’s not just the students of the Jianwu Department who are angry, but also the students of the “Huanglao Department”.

why?
Very simple.

Because the Huang-Lao school of thought was originally the study of Laozi and Zhuangzi, but after the establishment of Dayu, Dayu set up the "Taiping Dao", and Taiping Dao almost became the orthodoxy of Taoism. They respected the Emperor of Taoism, the Three Pure Ones, and Zhuangzi as the leaders of Taoism.

The status of Laozi among the Three Pure Ones is self-evident. As for Zhuangzi, it is because the "Nanhua Immortal" who taught Zhang Jiao the Taiping Art was Zhuang Zhou, and Zhuangzi. Zhuang Zhou's title in Taoism is "Nanhua", also known as Nanhua Immortal or Nanhua Zhenren.

Now, you, an emperor of a dynasty that started out as a Taoist, actually gave so many imperial examination quotas to a group of monks?
what's going on?

You don't want to follow Taoism anymore, but want to follow Buddhism instead?
This is no longer just a dispute over the so-called "quota", it is also a dispute over the orthodoxy.

The dispute between Taoism and Buddhism!

Of course, after the students of the Huanglao and Jianwu departments became dissatisfied, the students of the Guozi department also began to become dissatisfied.

After all, without the Artisan Buddhism Department, they would have more places than they do now. Now they only have ninety places!
Those students who failed the exam were naturally angry.

The twelfth year of Wansui, spring and summer.

With the end of the Enke selection, a larger uprising began to stir with the arrival of the autumn wind.

Everyone was angry.

Like a drop of oil falling into a raging fire.

(End of this chapter)