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

Chapter 503 This is the best era

Chapter 503 This is the best era
The 33rd year of Zhenguan came to an end quickly.

The winter of that year was very cold. With the departure of Li Shimin, the mood of the people also became a little colder, but this was unavoidable.

Who in the world can escape death? Who can avoid aging?

The answer is no one.

Chen Yu is also slowly getting older, but as he gets older, his knowledge and thoughts are like gold in a fire, slowly becoming brighter.

He has almost become the brightest pearl of the Tang Dynasty.

The times are developing slowly, and technology is also developing. Both research institutes and many universities are paying more and more attention to the advancement of "thoughts".

The progress of science and technology will inevitably drive the progress of ideas, and the progress of ideas will have a certain development effect on the progress of science and technology.

This is inevitable.

Today's Tang Dynasty is very prosperous and lively.

Almost all the people of the Tang Dynasty could enjoy the convenience brought by the times - here it refers to the people with Tang Dynasty household registration, excluding foreigners who came from overseas for the sake of fame, nor those criminals who committed serious crimes.

This is a kind of scenery that makes people indulge in the glamour of luxury.

Taiji Hall
The owner of this majestic palace is the master of the entire world. No matter how small the sound coming from this palace is, it will become deafening through the expansion of this simple yet majestic power institution.

The entire Tang Dynasty, or the entire world, is like a joyful symphony, which is both enchanting and unpredictable.

His Majesty the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty is like the conductor of this orchestra, leading the orchestra to play music that shakes the world.

Of course, the ministers of the early Tang Dynasty were also gradually growing old and dying.

Of the twenty-four heroes in the Lingyan Pavilion, only Chen Linan, Cheng Yaojin and Li Jing are still alive today. The relationship between these three people is closer than before.

Li Chengqian coughed lightly, and his whole body was shaking.

He exhaled slowly, the depression in his heart almost unable to dissipate: "Alas——"

"Tell me, can I continue to move forward? Can I surpass my father?"

There was a hint of sadness in Li Chengqian's eyes.

He has asked this question many times, but he always felt that the answer he would get would be no. As for why he didn't just listen to the answer given by the person he asked?
Because Li Chengqian was not asking about a specific person, in front of him was a painting hanging on the wall.

That is a portrait of Empress Changsun.

Empress Changsun lived a little longer than Li Shimin in this life, but her life still ended last year.

One winter in the seventh year of Kaiyao, Empress Changsun finally couldn't hold on any longer. Before her death, she asked a painter to paint her appearance, and then told her son - she was a mother and knew too well what her son looked like.

She knew that her son was very arrogant - even so arrogant that he wanted to surpass his father.

Can.
how can that be possible?
His father was the founder of this vast empire and this magnificent era.

Wanting to surpass Li Shimin. This may be something that Li Chengqian will never be able to do in his entire life, but Li Chengqian will definitely insist on doing it because of his pride and his persistence.

So Empress Changsun hung up this portrait and told Li Chengqian that if he had anything to say to her, he should stand in front of the painting and tell her, and she would definitely be able to hear him.

Li Chengqian and Empress Changsun actually knew in their hearts that there might not be any gods or ghosts in this world - after all, scientific theories in recent years were even more advanced, and people in the research institute were even studying how to harvest lightning from the sky for their own use.

And they actually succeeded a little bit.

This is enough to completely destroy the belief in gods and ghosts in people's minds.

But Empress Changsun still said so, and Li Chengqian continued to do so in the past few years because...the pressure on him was too great.

After hanging the portrait there again, Li Chengqian sighed, supported himself and came to the back hall. Looking at Chen Shuo who was waiting there, he sighed again. Over the years, whenever Chen Shuo came here, it meant that nothing good had happened.

"Tell me, what happened again?"

Chen Shuo's expression was serious, but there was a hint of smile in his words that he couldn't hide.

"His Majesty."

He raised his head, looked at Li Chengqian and said, "The internal combustion engine has been developed."

Chen Shuo closed his eyes with some excitement in his heart. His eyes and hands were trembling slightly, and he was in extreme excitement.

Internal combustion engine! It's been researched!

This is a huge progress, one that the whole world will pay attention to!
Li Chengqian's eyes suddenly lit up, and his body trembled slightly, but he maintained his composure with amazing fortitude: "So we really need to use "oil"?"

Oil was a substance they had discovered before. After the establishment of the Gao Dynasty, the surrounding small countries began to join the Tang Dynasty and even incorporated into its territory. The biggest reason why the Tang Dynasty accepted them was because of the existence of "oil".

People at the research institute had long discovered the existence of "oil" and even judged that this stable substance, which can be burned to provide part of the power, will definitely become the most important "resource" in the future.

Therefore, the Tang Dynasty accepted the requests for annexation from those small countries - or in other words, the reason why the Gao Dynasty had nothing to do and threatened these small countries and acted as if it wanted to kill them all was because of the order of the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty.

It must be said here that even though the Emperor Shen of Gao had left the Tang Dynasty, they were still smart and knew that no country in the world could defeat the Tang Dynasty, or the Central Plains, so.
They maintained very close ties with the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty.

Dagao was not a vassal state of the Tang Dynasty, but it was actually a type of vassal state.

He is not really a younger brother.

Chen Shuo nodded slightly: "Yes, Your Majesty, the people in the research institute have separated several types of oil through various means, and then processed the oil into different "oils", one of which meets the requirements for use in internal combustion engines."

"Through experiments, it was found that a huge internal combustion engine can ensure the accurate and long-term stable operation of the "train."

He looked at Li Chengqian and said, "Your Majesty's expectation and hope of connecting the north and the south, and even making communication between the north and the south less difficult, is about to become a reality."

"And this progress in transportation, this progress in time and space, will further enable us to realize our idea of strengthening centralization!"

After ascending the throne, Li Chengqian wanted to further improve the centralization of power and further expand the power of the court, rather than increase the autonomy of those local areas, but the long journey made him helpless.

In terms of political system, he has almost reached a peak.

In the ninth year of Kaiyao, under the promotion of Chen Shuo, Li Chengqian reformed the three provinces and further reformed them into "three provinces and six ministries". The power of the Shangshu Tai was further weakened. Such policies were implemented throughout the country and promoted the further development of "provincial governors", but these still could not satisfy him.

So in the eleventh year of Kaiyao, Li Chengqian once again proposed the concept of "Grand Scholar of Taiji Hall", concentrating power in the "organization" headed by the Grand Scholar of Taiji Hall and others.

The people in this organization had great power - but it was not a formal organization, and they did not even have specific power, but they were close to the emperor, so they had power. The emperor's power was also further expanded.

This still couldn't satisfy Li Chengqian.

Fortunately, in the 13th year of Kaiyao, which is this year, the Academy of Sciences finally produced the "internal combustion engine", so they can continue laying railway tracks and building trains. In this way, the time it takes for the soldiers and envoys of the Tang Emperor to reach a certain place will be further shortened.

This made the Tang emperor's control over the world more rigorous.

Li Chengqian let out a long breath - this time it was not a sigh. He looked at the starry sky in the distance and said with a smile: "Yes, our idea will be further realized."

"This is the best of times."

Research Institute

"This is the best of times."

Li Tai waved a "test tube" in front of him, and said to Li Ke who was making trouble beside him with emotion: "Third brother, you should do what you like, and the eldest brother won't care."

"Just like me, I want to continue my career in the institute. Didn't Big Brother question me?"

"Your speculation about Big Brother is totally unnecessary."

He sighed and said, "Big Brother is not such a petty person. He doesn't care about us at all. His goal is Father. He hopes to surpass Father, or to stand shoulder to shoulder with Father."

“He wanted to create a perfect flourish.”

“But it’s actually very difficult.”

Li Tai shrugged his shoulders and said, "The prosperous era created by my father has actually reached a certain peak era. That is the maximum level that the land of Kyushu can reach, just like the "peak value" marked in the experiment."

Li Ke yawned and shrugged his shoulders: "What's the big deal?"

"Hasn't the prosperity created by my eldest brother surpassed that of our father? Or has it reached the peak created by our father?"

"In the past few years, people who went out to sea have discovered several other continents. Those continents were also named by my brother. They even brought back food products that were not available in Zhongzhou. With the research institutes and farmers researching food to make it more productive, the population of Datang has now even reached 10 million."

"Do you understand what kind of number this is?"

Li Ke was paralyzed on the sofa in the laboratory, and then he said: "When my father was alive, the peak population of the Tang Dynasty was about 70 million, which was already the peak at that time."

"The population of the Tang Dynasty is now 30 million more than it was then!"

"And this is a number that is growing steadily, with no sign of slowing down at all."

"The lives of the common people have not become worse because of the increase in the population of the Tang Dynasty. Instead, they have become better!"

"During the Zhenguan period, the price of rice was ten coins per dou, but now it is eight coins! Eight coins, do you know what this number is?"

"This means that nearly two-thirds of the people in Qiandu, Tang Dynasty, can have food to eat and will not starve. If they save money, anyone with a little bit of strength can have food to eat."

"When I traveled around the world two years ago, I hardly saw any beggars in the Tang Dynasty. Even the people in the poor mountainous areas could have a bite to eat."

"The people around Chang'an City are already used to three meals a day, and people in poor mountainous areas can at least have one meal a day!"

"Which of the prosperous times recorded in the books of ancient and modern sages can surpass the prosperous times created by my eldest brother?"

Li Ke placed his hand on his forehead, looked at the palace above his head, and said softly: "Father was right to pass the throne to my eldest brother, and he was right to doubt us. If it were us, we would definitely not be able to do this."

Li Tai laughed, put down what he was holding, and walked to Li Ke's side.

"So you just want to give up?"

"Are you worthy of your teacher?"

The teacher Li Tai was referring to was "Chen Yu". That year, Li Tai was admitted to Kyoto University, while Li Ke was slightly worse off and was admitted to Chang'an University, so he also stayed in Kyoto.

Later they became Chen Yu's disciples and were considered Chen Yu's disciples.

Li Ke shrugged his shoulders and let Li Tai pull him up: "Okay, okay, let's not talk about this anymore."

"Didn't the train start its experimental run today?"

"Let's go."

He walked out of the house, looked at the stars in the sky, and couldn't help but sigh: "This is the best era."

Zhen Wang Mansion
Chen Yu sat there, holding the "Qilin Jade" in his hand. Chen Zhan had given this thing to him a long time ago. He even went to the "Zhuoshen Tower" several times, wanting to use the "enlightenment" recorded in the records to explain his own future.

But it failed in the end.

He sighed, but there was a hint of satisfaction in his eyes.

The Tang Dynasty is now very prosperous. He has not let his father down, nor has he let the Chen family down.

He didn't take it all on himself.

Each generation has its own things to do.

Chang'an Street
"woo woo woo woo--"

A strange sound was heard, but people did not feel strange. They just took a quick look there and continued doing their own things.

"What has the research institute come up with?"

An older woman was sitting there, squinting her eyes and basking in the sun.

"I don't know how many strange and bizarre things I will see while I am alive."

The old man at the side smiled and said, "Who knows?"

"I only know that if it weren't for your majesty and Chen, even if we had developed this kind of thing, we wouldn't be able to see it or use it."