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

Chapter 449 Liaodong Branch County
Guan Shan nodded and said directly: "Since your majesty ascended the throne, this is the first time you have launched a war against the barbarians to annihilate a nation, so this battle must be won beautifully, and there must be no mistakes."

The smile on his face disappeared a little: "I think this important task can only be entrusted to you two."

Li Shimin didn't mind this and nodded directly: "Uncle Guan, just leave it to us. What's the big deal? Those who are capable should do more work."

The long sword at his waist still flashed with cold light, and the burning fire in his heart was still burning.

Chen Linan had the same idea.

Didn't the two of them join the army to protect the country and the people? Didn't they just dislike these barbarians?

In the fourteenth year of Kaihuang, winter.

Just like the heavy snow last year, the final decisive battle between the Sui Dynasty and Goguryeo began.

This time, the royal family and even the powerful people of Goguryeo had to fight hard to resist, because even if they surrendered at this time, the end would be death, and they had no way to retreat.

The scent of fireworks in the city echoed in the sky, embellishing this cold city on the edge.

In the capital of Goguryeo, the gap between the rich and the poor was very obvious.

In this empty, surrounded cold wind, the children of the rich and powerful can still use the most expensive charcoal to keep warm, and can even play with silk and have fun, and they still hold pretty girls in their arms.

Even in the mansion, the lascivious music was still echoing.

These are the rich and powerful.

This was the case whether in the capital of Goguryeo or the capital of Sui.

In the freezing cold, a thick layer of snow has accumulated. In this freezing cold, the descendants of ordinary people and the most ordinary soldiers are fighting.

The long knife slashed across the neck, and then drops of blood fell on the white snowflakes. Countless snowflakes finally melted into blood and spilled on the ground.

The bodies fell one by one and were finally covered by heavy snow.

The candles in the distance still flickered.

This heavy snow lasted for two days, and the fighting among the soldiers also lasted for two days. During these two days and one night, the soldiers had become completely blood-thirsty, and the people around them fell one by one, and came forward one by one.

In front of the Goguryeo capital, the siege finally ended when the sun set again.

Despite the desperate fighting of the Goguryeo soldiers, the city was not yet captured.

Li Shimin stood in front of the military camp with a solemn expression. He had a long sword on his waist and a thoughtful look on his brow. He held a feng shui map in his hand and was studying it carefully.

He turned his head, looked at the person next to him and asked, "How long do you think it will take us to win?"

Cheng Yaojin shook his head slightly. He scratched his head with a simple smile on his face: "I don't know either."

"But they probably won't be able to hold on for too long."

Qin Qiong on the side also said: "I think so too. After all, for those soldiers of Goguryeo, the process of fighting is not the most terrifying thing. The most terrifying thing is that they have been cut off from supplies. To a certain extent, they can't afford to waste time."

"I have learned about the capital of Goguryeo. It is even more extravagant than our capital. The children of the rich and powerful monopolize 90% of the food, but they are very greedy. They would rather throw the food to their dogs than give it to the people in the city."

"The food in the city can only last for more than a month at most, and we have been surrounding the city for nearly a month now."

"I'm afraid the city will be in chaos in the next few days."

Li Shimin nodded, pressed his forehead slightly and said, "That's fine."

"Then we'll keep it around for a few more days."

He narrowed his eyes and said, "In short, we must capture the Goguryeo capital before the New Year. I don't want to see our soldiers fighting in battle during the New Year."

"Didn't the Mohists develop some lanterns that can fly very high? Have the soldiers release some, write provocative words on them, and then have them drop into the royal city."

"They will definitely fall into civil strife!"

After finishing speaking, Li Shimin looked at the two new lieutenants with a smile on his face and said, "You two should do more meritorious deeds this time. When we return to Kyoto, I will also recommend you for merit."

Both Cheng Yaojin and Qin Qiong had smug smiles on their faces.

They are different from Li Shimin and Chen Linan. Their purpose of coming here is to make achievements and then become officials.

Kyoto Luoyang
Yang Jian sat in the imperial study, his brows gloomy. He looked at the attendant beside him and said, "Has he done anything else these days?"

The attendant knew who Yang Jian was talking about, and immediately whispered back, "Your Majesty, His Royal Highness Prince An has not been active these days except for studying at home, and the Chen family's disciples in the court have not visited him either."

Yang Jian sneered: "According to my wishes, continue to improve the treatment of those Chen's disciples."

"I just don't believe it. There are people in this world who are so powerful and wealthy that they cannot be corrupted? If there really are such people, then how did the Wansui Emperor die back then?"

"There are a lot of people who are willing to sell themselves out for fame and fortune, but I don't believe that anyone is willing to be the first person to sell out the Chen family for fame and fortune."

"I am not going to deal with the entire Chen family. I just want to deal with Chen Chengtao of the Chen family."

The attendant lowered his head and dared not speak.

Immortals fight, mortals suffer.

They are nothing but slaves. What can they say when the people above are fighting?
I can only pray to God secretly to protect me and prevent this fight from affecting me.

Zhen Wang Mansion
This mansion has existed for hundreds of years, and there is an almost identical mansion in Chang'an City and even in Xianyang City.

In the past, Emperor Taizu of Dayu built this mansion for the Chen family. It was almost a one-to-one restoration of the Duke of Anguo's Palace in Chang'an City at that time. The Duke of Anguo's Palace in Chang'an City was a one-to-one restoration of the "Duke of Anguo's Palace" in Xianyang City.

Chen Ruohan was flipping through the book in her hand slowly, as if she didn't notice the anxious Wei Zheng and the other two sitting opposite her.

Fang Xuanling was the first to be unable to hold back his curiosity: "Brother Cheng Tao, aren't you afraid at all?"

"We all know your Majesty's temper. That day you directly opposed your Majesty in the court, and your words were so powerful that we were almost scared to death and wanted to step forward to stop you, but it was too late."

"I heard that His Majesty has secretly contacted those Chen's disciples. Aren't you afraid that His Majesty can really..."

Du Ruhui was also a little anxious: "Yes, Brother Cheng Tao, even the three of us who are not considered Chen's disciples have been contacted. His Majesty even promised Brother Keming and Brother Xuancheng the position of the fourth-rank Imperial Censor, and he didn't even ask them to do anything."

"Then the temptation to Chen's other disciples will be even greater."

Chen Ruohan was not in a hurry at all. He just read the book. On the contrary, Wei Zheng seemed calmer than the other two. He saw something from Chen Ruohan's reaction. "I'm afraid that's exactly what Brother Cheng Tao wants, right?"

Fang Xuanling raised his eyebrows slightly, with a thoughtful look on his face: "I have heard a rumor about Chen, saying that some of Chen's disciples are used to do some "dirty things". They will not cross the bottom line, but they will also make money like other officials. These people are called "pigs". Pigs are fattened and naturally need to be slaughtered."

"I once thought, if some pigs are raised too fat, will they want to start to resist? After all, people have a desire to survive. When that happens, how should Chen's knife kill these pigs?"

"After listening to Brother Xuancheng's words today, I have an idea."

He looked at Chen Ruohan: "One of the purposes of Brother Cheng Tao's coming to Kyoto is probably to get rid of these people."

"It's just that some of these people have grown too powerful, and they carry the Chen family's reputation, but have forgotten their original intention of becoming "pigs", so."

"So Brother Cheng Tao wants to remove this part of the "tumor" from his body, and then slaughter this fattened pig?"

Du Ruhui also reacted at this time, and couldn't help smacking his lips: "No wonder Brother Cheng Tao didn't react at all, allowing His Majesty to contact these people."

"The Chen disciples who were corrupted by power and enjoyment are basically those who have forgotten their original intentions. These people are equivalent to the cancer in the huge system of the Chen family. Your Majesty prying them away at this time is equivalent to detoxifying the Chen family."

Wei Zheng said calmly, "Look at the faint smile on Ruohan's face. I've only seen it when he wants to cheat someone. I'm afraid Uncle Chen is already prepared in Guandu and can clean up the Chen family members at any time, right?"

"I've heard that Chen's company regularly handles some of the 'dirty' things, but now that I've seen it for myself, I understand how precious this is."

Removing the cancer from one's body must be an extremely painful thing, which can be seen from many of Chen Ruohan's actions now. And Chen has been cleaning the toxins from his body regularly and continuously for more than 800 years since the founding of the family. How determined is that?

In fact, during those years when he was younger and more reckless, Wei Zheng never believed that Chen was as "noble" as the rumors said. After all, they are all human beings. How could anyone really be noble and holy?
But now it seems that Chen is indeed not that noble. There are tumors in his body, but these tumors not only do not affect Chen's holiness, but instead add a bit of "holiness" to him.

The Chen family is also a human family, but they seem to be born divine and have remained the same for so many years.

How could Wei Zheng not be moved by such a family and such a person?

He decided to truly join the core faction of the Chen family.

Wei Zheng also wanted to be a good person who served the country and the people.

In the fourteenth year of Kaihuang, in winter, on the fifteenth day of the twelfth lunar month.

There were still fifteen days until the New Year's Day of the fifteenth year of Kaihuang, commonly known as the "New Year's Festival", and the capital of Goguryeo was already beginning to collapse.

A dozen days ago, at the beginning of the twelfth lunar month, a rebellion broke out in the city.

The reason was that ordinary people in the city could no longer afford to buy food. Their eyes were red and yellow from hunger, and some were almost starving to death, to the point of eating their own children.

Under such circumstances, a royal child even had someone feed the best beef directly to his dog in the street, and wasted food very blatantly.

He even made the people watch the livestock eat things that they could not eat, and watch the man's noble boots crush the food on the ground, covered with endless dust.

This royal descendant even took pleasure in burning food. Looking at those suffering people, he said that they could ask for food, but they would have to kill their own blood relatives.

In the center of the royal city, there is a place set up by this royal descendant, called the "execution platform."

If you kill your relative on the stage, you can receive food from him that is as heavy as his body.

In order to keep their children and their families alive, some elderly people in their fifties and sixties forced their sons to find "Guanyin Soil", eat the soil, and finally let their children kill themselves.

Just to exchange for more food.

Such immoral and cruel behavior once completely angered the people.

Even though there were guards watching on the side, the extremely hungry people didn't care about that and rushed forward to tear the royal child to pieces.

When blood flowed from the neck of this royal descendant, everyone was stunned.

original
The so-called noble are just ordinary people, ordinary people who will die.

Thus, a rebellion came into being.

But it was finally suppressed.

The fourteenth year of Kaihuang, the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth lunar month.

Goguryeo King City

When the soldiers guarding the gate took over, they looked at each other and saw the determination in each other's eyes.

They also came from ordinary families. Their parents and brothers were also starving. Some parents even died on the "execution platform" for their children. How could they continue to maintain that corrupt rule?

So, on the night of the 27th day of the twelfth lunar month.

The endless burning flames of revenge ignited everything and set everything on fire. Finally, in front of Li Shimin, Chen Linan and others, the tightly closed city gate opened.

Among them came out soldiers, unarmed.

There was numbness and pain in their eyes.

Li Shimin stood in front of the city wall, looking at the raging flames in the city, and couldn't help but sigh.

"That's the way the world is."

He murmured in a low voice: "Is the book that leaked out of the palace really written by the Emperor Wansui himself and what he saw in Chen's Zhuoshen Tower?"

It was a book of miscellaneous notes, or "essays", that Li Shimin got when he was a child, and its name was "Miscellaneous Talks from the Past".

Li Shimin had the original imperial edict of the Long Live Emperor at home, so he could recognize that it was the handwriting of the Long Live Emperor.

The fourteenth year of Kaihuang, the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month.

The Sui-Gao War, which lasted for a year and a half, ended with the complete annihilation of the Goguryeo royal family and the slaughter of the powerful in the city like cattle and sheep.

The following year, spring.

The imperial court set up the "Liaodong branch county" here.

Together with Liaodongbei County, Liaodongnan County, Liaodongxi County, and Liaodongdong County, they are known as the Five Counties of Liaodong.

(End of this chapter)