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

Chapter 511 Counting the romantic figures

During the reign of Emperor Longwu, the Tang Dynasty produced many talented people, and the talent pool was even close to that of the heyday of the Tang Dynasty.

Of course, Li Bai, Du Fu and others from the prosperous Tang Dynasty still exist in this version of history, but they did not follow the original historical trajectory, or their fate has been changed.

For example, Li Bai no longer wasted his life and was eventually exiled. Instead, he stood at the pinnacle of the literary world. Du Fu no longer lived a life of poverty, because there was no "An Shi Rebellion", so the Tang Dynasty remained prosperous, and Du Fu's poems no longer contained those national hatreds and family feuds.

They have certainly left a significant mark in history, but they no longer have the status they once had. This may be an inevitable regret after historical changes.

For example, Du Fu. Although Du Fu is still known as the "Poet Sage", he is no longer called the "Poet Sage" because his poems recorded the blood and tears of the Tang Dynasty, and the famous Three Elegies and Three Farewells were never published.

Of course, this does not affect Du Fu's position in history.

Because although his poems no longer contain the vicissitudes of national hatred and family feuds, they still have the weight of history. After the Three Elegies and Three Farewells, he created new poems, such as the famous "Three Seasons", which are "Thoughts on Watching the Cars in Autumn", "Thoughts on Seeing the Southern Lychees in Winter" and "Thoughts on Seeing the Return of the Army in Spring". These three seven-character quatrains are also classics that have gone down in history.

It also records the opening of the "steam locomotive", the "Beijing-Nan Line", which is the line from the capital Chang'an to Jiaozhou, the southernmost part of the Tang Dynasty, and the "Guan-Yue Line", which is the train route from Guandu to Jiaoyuezhou (now Vietnam, Laos, etc.), and the famous classic event of these two places sending locally grown lychees to Guandu in winter, as well as the event of the army returning from the front line after the end of the First World War.

As history continues to change, new history will emerge, and these histories will gradually form new parts.

The history of the prosperous Tang Dynasty is naturally very glorious, but the history of the late Tang Dynasty is equally shocking.

When modern historians study the history of the Tang Dynasty, they often feel that only two parts of the history of the Tang Dynasty are worth studying. The first is the history when the Tang Dynasty was first established, or even before it was established, that is, the reign of Emperor Taizu of the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin.

The second part is the history of the Tang Dynasty during the reign of Emperor Longwu.

The historical community generally feels that the middle period of the Tang Dynasty - yes, they believe that the history except for Emperor Longwu and Emperor Taizu is the history of the middle period of the Tang Dynasty. They believe that the history of the middle period of the Tang Dynasty is very simple and has no research value.

To sum it up, it can be summed up in three words.

"Fight", "Rob", "Win"

It was not until modern times that the famous historian Chen, who wrote "History of Chinese Wars", put forward the "argument" that the most valuable research history of the Tang Dynasty was actually the unremarkable middle period, and people began to turn their attention to this part of history.

It was also from that time that people realized that the reason for the fall of the Tang Dynasty actually started with Emperor Hongyuan or even earlier.

This was a fuse that had been buried for nearly a hundred years. It was not until the reign of Emperor Longwu that it was completely ignited, and then this huge giant was blown down. Even after the Tang Dynasty fell, it was still extremely powerful.

The fifteenth year of Emperor Longwu, 960 AD.

Tang Dynasty, Chang'an City, Taiji Hall

Emperor Longwu "Li Cheng" had a complicated expression. He looked at Chen Xian, who was sitting in front of him in a plain robe, and sighed softly: "Teacher, just as my father and you expected back then, huge problems have arisen within the Tang Dynasty, and now the Tang Dynasty has no chance of turning back."

"What do you think the Tang Dynasty should do, and what should I do?"

Chen Xian just remained silent for a long time before he stood up and looked at the sky in the distance with his hands behind his back. The sky was no longer azure blue. After the Tang Dynasty launched the Industrial Revolution, the sky of Chang'an City began to gradually become turbid. This was also the price that had to be paid for launching the Industrial Revolution.

Of course, with the Chen family around, the Tang Dynasty did not follow the historical template of a "fog city". Not long after the Industrial Revolution began, the head of the Chen family's generation wrote to the emperor to tell him the importance of environmental protection.

Environmental protection in the Tang Dynasty also began at that time.

The sky was still the same sky as it was a thousand years ago. At this moment, Chen Xian only felt that there seemed to be some stars twinkling in the sky. Those stars were all his ancestors looking at him.

Everything is so normal.

"Your Majesty, the situation is so bad that it is difficult to reverse."

"When Emperor Hongyuan and Emperor Zhanwu made such a reaction and decision, it meant that with the occurrence of today's incident, the Tang Dynasty had no way out."

He turned around and looked at Li Cheng and said, "But I have a way. I will try my best."

Chen Xian smiled and said, "Although people always say that destiny cannot be violated, Chen has never believed in the so-called destiny, nor in the so-called worldly affairs. Chen will only follow the path he wants to take."

“But we still have to be prepared.”

He said softly, "There is a way out of everything. When Zhuge Liang created the Eight Diagrams Formation, he also left a way out. The Taoists of the Taiping Dao often said, 'There are fifty great ways, and forty-nine are derived from heaven, leaving a glimmer of hope.' Now, the Tang Dynasty is still stable, and this is our chance."

"As long as we can resolve the internal conflicts of the Tang Dynasty before external conflicts erupt, we will have enough time to resolve external conflicts little by little."

"The most difficult problem for the Tang Dynasty now is that the rest of the world is also making continuous progress. Although the Tang Dynasty is still surpassing them and leaving them far behind, it is no longer one era behind them."

This is a problem that is bound to arise with the development of science and technology.

In many cases, when "technology" first appeared, it was epoch-making and left the rest of the people behind by an era. For example, the gap between cold weapons and hot weapons is huge.

When a man holding a cold weapon faces a man holding a hot weapon, he has absolutely no chance.

It is just like the Boxers back then who faced the foreign powers' guns and cannons with swords in their hands. Even if they paid with countless lives, even if they killed some soldiers of the foreign powers, the results achieved with human lives could be easily smoothed out by the powerful weapons of the foreign powers.

There is also a gap between thermal weapons, but it is not that big.

Just like on the battlefield - everyone is holding a gun, you are holding the most common gun, and I am holding a Gatling gun, machine gun, etc., I can still fill and narrow the gap through tactics, numbers, and iron will.

What can bridge this gap?

It is a more advanced weapon that once again leaps into an era.

For example, in the original historical trajectory, when the tank appeared, human life seemed to have no meaning - but after the tank appeared for a while, people once again came up with ways to deal with it and solve it.

Then came the "plane". When air combat "planes" appeared, the era was leapfrogged again. However, not many years later, it was still overtaken.

until now.

The Tang Dynasty was at this stage at this time.

At the beginning, the Tang Dynasty surpassed other countries. Those so-called huge empires were just like ants in front of the Tang Dynasty. The strength and weapons of the Tang Dynasty were ahead of the times, but the progress of science and technology always has a "limitation", and the Tang Dynasty at this time was limited to this.

To give an example, Tang Dynasty was 10 and other countries were 0. Later, Tang Dynasty was 10 and other countries were 5. The gap was still large, but it was beginning to catch up. Now, Tang Dynasty is 99 and other countries are 85. Although the gap still looks the same as before, the magnitude is completely different.

The hidden dangers buried during the reign of Emperor Zhanwu began to emerge.

The common people and the powerful in the Tang Dynasty had long been accustomed to taking and robbing whatever they set their eyes on, and they would do so in a crushing manner and win by a crushing manner - the rest of the countries also viewed the Tang Dynasty in the same way.

In their eyes, the Tang Dynasty was a "god", and now...
The gods seemed to have a health bar.

People who often play games know that once the health bar of an invincible and unpredictable god appears, he can be killed.

This is also the idea of ​​other countries.

This is the situation that the Tang Dynasty is facing now.

Other countries outside are eyeing the Tang Dynasty with ill intentions on their faces, eager to try and see whether the Tang Dynasty can kill them mercilessly as before, and whether it is still the almighty god, the untouchable god.

Internally, there were many newly emerging "classes" who were eyeing the Tang Dynasty with eager eyes, wanting to divide up its flesh and blood and use it as their own nourishment.

There will never be enough benefits to be shared.

Not only these new classes, but even some other "clan" classes are considering this issue.

why?
Just like other countries that have the idea of ​​provoking the Tang Dynasty, they are also thinking about this issue.

Are Chen and the emperor still as invincible as before? Are they still able to suppress everyone like before?

Can it?

If they can, they will continue to cut flesh and bleed, but if they can't
If not, they would have to attack together and divide up the interests held by the Chen and Li families - of course they would not dare to threaten the Chen and Li families too much, but at least they could seize some of the interests belonging to the untouchables from the hands of these two behemoths, right?

The Chen family and the Li family have been standing together for too long. For hundreds of years, they have been protecting the interests of the "untouchables" and letting them stand above them! Some people have even started to bring up the topic of equality for all!
This is unacceptable to those clans!

How could they possibly be willing to do this? So they had to test it. They stretched out their hands to test it, even if Chen chopped off their testing hands time and time again.

This is the problem that the Tang Dynasty has to face.

Li Cheng raised his head and looked at Chen Xian and said, "Teacher, what you said is, let them do it, and then completely solve them?"

Chen Xian smiled slightly, looked at Li Cheng and said, "Yes."

"Only in this way can this matter be resolved completely."

"But there are risks in doing so."

Chen Xian looked at Li Cheng and said, "When doing this, we cannot show any sign of wavering or exhaustion, otherwise they will pounce on us like hungry wolves and bite us to death."

"Also, there must not be any external conflicts."

"If Your Majesty decides to do this, then we must make two preparations."

"First, even if this thing succeeds, we will still have to injure our bones and then be prepared to recover slowly."

"Secondly, if this fails, we must find a way out. The Tang Dynasty may become a part of the dust of history, just like the Qin, Liu, Cao, and Zhang families in the past, becoming an ordinary family in this vast land."

"Of course."

Chen Xian turned around and said with a slightly "dark" look in his eyes: "You can also choose to cooperate with the outside world, kill the insiders, and then kill the outside forces."

When Li Cheng heard this "option", he immediately ruled it out.

He said directly and bluntly: "The Li family would not do such a thing, and the Tang Dynasty would not do such a thing either."

“There is no doubt about that.”

"Teacher, let's discuss this. If this fails and the Tang Dynasty collapses, how can we protect the interests of the people? How can we choose a new dynasty? How can we take advantage of the last bit of strength of the Tang Dynasty to cripple all those forces that are eyeing the Tang Dynasty at once, so that they will have no strength and dare not interfere in the Central Plains until the Central Plains recovers?"

Listening to Li Cheng's words, a faint smile finally appeared on Chen Xian's face. It was only when he got here that he finally relaxed completely.

In fact, he had been preparing for what Chen should do when Li Cheng was unwilling to do so.

But unless it was absolutely necessary, he was unwilling to make such a choice.

Taohuayuan

Li Shimin, Li Chengqian and a group of people sat together, Liu Bang, Liu Che and other people from the Liu Han royal family sat together, Cao Cao and other people from the Three Kingdoms sat together. Of course, Liu Bei and others sat with Liu Bang, but the Zhang emperor and Ying Zheng were not here.

Everyone looked at the water mirror leading to the human world, with a little nervousness and anticipation on their faces.

"I don't know whether Mr. Chen's plan can be realized."

Li Shimin sighed deeply. He didn't care about the fall of the Tang Dynasty. He only cared about whether that person's plan could succeed.

What’s the point of talking about a dynasty ruled by one family?
Above the infinitely high sky.

Chen Ye sat there, looking very small compared to the vast world. The originally grand river of time above his head had turned into an ordinary river, and the vague consciousness that could be secretly called "fate" or "heaven's way" or even "historical inertia" seemed to have begun to sink.

Everything is changing slowly.

Datang
The sixteenth year of Longwu.

Something unexpected happened.

His appearance disrupted the plans of Li Cheng and Chen Xian.

PS: Stable updates will start today, and Sun 6 will start tomorrow
(End of this chapter)